Time Of Great Need revised
by karkovice
Summary: This is a revision of the story I've had on here for quite a while. I've slighly rewritten the body of the story, and subdivided it into more manageable chapters. It'll also make things easier for anybody who hasn't read the story before. Enjoy!
1. Introduction

**THE TIME OF GREAT NEED**

**(A LAND BEFORE TIME STORY)**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

I wrote this story shortly after disovering the original 1988 theatrical release, the 1994 sequel and the 5th installment- where Chomper played a more active role in helping the five main characters.

This was also written before I saw the TV series on the same website. Therefore, in this story's plot, Chomper never met Ruby, never had confrontations with Red Claw or the fast biters/velociraptors; nor did he go live in The Great Valley while he was still young. Instead, he stayed with his parents and grew up among the sharptooth, thus learning all of the survival tools of his kind.

Yet I felt it was important that he remembers all of his old friends from The Great Valley, as well as their language, to form the basis of the plot of this story. I also felt it was important that their bond of friendship grow ever stronger as the storyline began to develop. Finally, I wanted Cera the threehorn to be more open to new ideas and new ways of thinking; and that she would look past her differences to become the key hero who conquers the odds and vanquishes the tenacious "villain", as a true story's hero always does.

The reason I wrote this story was so other fans of the cartoon can see what I imagined them being like all grown up, what kind of adventures they'd have as grown-ups, and what they would do to stay alive and go through other adventures. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


	2. Chapter 1  Familiar Grounds

**CHAPTER 1**

**FAMILIAR GROUNDS**

He had set out almost as soon as the crisis began to worsen. There was no doubt now where the origin of the sickness that afflicted his brethren came from. Now, all he needed to do was call upon his old friends for help before it was too late. _At least, I hope they still remember me as a friend,_ he thought to himself as he trudged on ever closer to his final destination.

It has been many seasons since he ventured out this way. He remembers being just a hatchling a day or so old when his parents left this area with him. Since then, he had grown up to be a fine sharptooth! He had grown from a not even one foot tall hatchling to a 10 foot tall monster capable of killing the largest threehorn there is singlehandedly, although he never actually tried. He lost the light blue tinge he had as a hatchling to develop the more olive green hue that was characteristic for his kind. His underbelly had turned light green, also typical of his kind. The only thing that didn't change were his soulful red eyes, which seemed to always get the attention of most female sharptooth of his kind. He always thought that that was what really won the heart of his mate, whom he had taken a few seasons ago. He hoped that his old friends would be able to recognize this, when he met up with them again. But at worst, it would be when he spoke the words he remembers that they_ should_ be able to recognize him.

It surprised him how much he remembered the original route that led to where he needed to go. He had only traveled down the winding path once or twice before; and it took him a whole two days to finally reach the more familiar surroundings he remembered from his youth. He knew it had taken him two days, because he counted the times the big bright circle rose and fell in the sky. _It can't be much further now,_ he thought to himself.

Finally, he was almost at the entranceway to the place he only knew as "the valley where all the green eaters lived". The rocky terrain before him was barren, and he heard his own stomps echoing through the narrow ravine as he kept placing one foot in front of the other, seemingly without end. He vowed not to rest until he was able to talk to his old friends again.

He was surprised to see that the passageway to the valley was no longer blocked. His parents had told him that they blocked the entrance a short time after they left the area; but the green eater that lived there were somehow able to unblock it again. He noticed two very distinct dark grey shapes at the mouth of the entryway. _Threehorns!_ He thought to himself. _They're guarding the mouth! _He grew more nervous with each approaching step. _Okay, Teek! This is no time to be afraid. There's no turning back now._ He already knew that they were watching him approach, probably asking themselves what he was doing there so far away from home. They will find out soon enough!


	3. Chapter 2  Old Friends Reunite

**CHAPTER 2**

**OLD FRIENDS REUNITE**

The two threehorn guards assigned this duty today were just lying on the rocky ground munching on some leaves, grass, flowers, and the few choice tree stars that they hand-picked themselves. They were bored out of their minds. Finally, the slightly smaller one spoke.

"Tell me again why we're out here, when we could be doing something much more fun today?"

His companion swallowed his bite of greens, and sighed. "For the fourth time, because Lesik wants the entrance to our valley guarded at all times in case any of those sharptooth decided to sneak in!"

"What's the use! The few sharptooth who knew about this place are long since DEAD by now! They don't care about this area anymore! Besides, somebody else coulda come here today!"

"You KNOW it's our turn, Celik! And we don't have much long to go, either! Our relief should be arriving shortly."

The smaller threehorn let out a sigh. "I still say that it was a mistake reopening the mouth of The Great Valley. They shoulda left it sealed for all eternity."

"Yes! I agree! But the Council decided otherwise! Lesik convinced them all of the idea that any green eaters still out there can find sanctuary in our great valley. 'It is useless to continue living in isolation', he said. They need a way to get in, which was why the rocks blocking this passage were removed."

"Humpf! The least our elder threehorn still on the Council could've done was argue more in favour of keeping this ravine blocked." He sighed. "I think he's becoming too old and weak to be a worthy member of the Council."

The larger male threehorn, Wendyk, growled. "Hey! That male threehorn also happens to be Cera's father! The female I am trying to become mates with!"

"Has she still refused your latest courtship?"

He sighed. "Yes."

"Ha! Maybe you're not trying hard enough. Or maybe she doesn't think you're worthy of her. Which wouldn't surprise me..."

"SHUT UP! It's not that, it's just that she's-"

The stomping sound up ahead cut his sentence short. His eyes grew wide as he saw what was approaching.

"I don't believe it!" he exclaimed as he quickly rose to his feet.

His companion echoed his surprise. "A sharptooth! Here?" He quickly got to his feet as well.

"Okay! Stand ready!" Wendyk exclaimed. "We must not show fear! They can smell fear, you know! That's how they're able to catch us!"

"Right." His companion took and imposing stance beside him. He tried his best not to show fear, but he was shaking like a tree star blowing in the wind.

As he neared the two threehorns, who had now assumed their traditional defensive posture, he swallowed the lump in his throat. It was unusual for him to be this frightened. He knew he could easily dismember the two threehorns standing a short distance away from him, or so his father always said he could. He never actually tried to take out a threehorn; or a long neck, for that matter; preferring to focus more on hunting all of the plentiful small mammals and birds that were everywhere nowadays. He was more afraid of failure than anything else. He knew that if he did not handle this situation properly, he and all of his kind were doomed.

The two threehorns began roaring at him in an attempt to scare him off "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" the larger one yelled out at him. "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

He did as the large threehorn commanded. He understood their language perfectly, although he had not spoken it, or heard it spoken, in many seasons. Then, raising his hands up in the air, he brought forth the words he knew they would understand him with. "I mean no harm! I do not want to hurt! I only seek Little Foot!" He was surprised at how well he remembered the green eater language. It all came back to him, like it was yesterday!

The two threehorns were taken aback at hearing this sharptooth speak their language. They eyed each other for a few seconds. Then, the larger of the two stepped forward a few feet. "How do you know our language?"

"It be long story! Please! There is no time. I only wish to see Little Foot!"

"Little Foot?"

The smaller threehorn intervened. "I think he means Lesik Foote, our Council leader!"

"Lesik... Foot? Is that his real name? And you say he is Council Leader!" the sharptooth smiled and roared in delight. "THAT BE GREAT! I have a name, too! I be Teekul Sharpe! My friends call me 'Teek'. But Little Foot know me as 'Chomper'."

"Chomper? Yeah, you look like a 'Chomper' all right! But you're not gonna CHOMP on any of us today! No way, no how!"

By this time, a third threehorn showed up. He was one of the two relief guards who was supposed to take over.

"What's going on?" he asks as he arrives on the scene.

"What? Oh, it's you, Veek." the larger threehorn said "'Bout time you showed up! You're not gonna believe this. This sharptooth speaks our language, and he says he's not here to hurt us. He only wants to speak to Council Leader Lesik. He even knows his hatchling nickname: Little Foot!"

"Ah, yes! I've heard those stories too, when I was a hatchling myself. About how Little Foot found a sharptooth hatchling, and actually took care of him until his parents came to get him. The sharptooths even spared his life because of this, and those of his friends, as well!"

He then turned his attention to the sharptooth."You say you know Little Foot? Are you that same young sharptooth hatchling he took care of all those seasons ago?"

The sharptooth smiled and nodded. "Yes! Yes! It be me. I be Chomper! I need to speak to him... Please! It be urgent!"

Veek was older than the other two threehorns, and he knew the stories of how the brave young Little Foot and his friends singlehandedly forged an unusual friendship with some sharptooth.

"All right! We can't let you into our valley, but we'll get Little Foot for you!"

The sharptooth looked relieved. "OH, Thank you! Thank you! That make me so happy!" The three horns thought they saw tears running down his eyes. _I guess sharptooth really DO have feelings._ Veek thought to himself. He recognized the expression on the sharptooth as being that of great joy and relief.

He turned his attention to the smaller three horn. "Okay. Celik! Go get Lesik and bring him here while we keep an eye on our sharptooth 'guest'."

"Yes, sir." And with that, the small three horn immediately trotted off to carry out his orders.

The two remaining three horn guards watched as Teek snatched up a couple of small furry rodent mammals that scooted by his feet. He tossed them in the air into his mouth and swallowed them whole. They both eyed at each other and swallowed the lumps in their throats, visibly nervous.

A short time later, Celik came back with Lesik following behind. Meanwhile, the other threehorn guard who was supposed to relieve the first two showed up for duty. He, too, was amazed at the story his compatriots told him when he arrived; and also at how the sharptooth standing in front of them could understand and speak their language.

Teek had sat down to rest his feet, after his long journey, while he waited for his old friend to show up. When he saw him coming, he immediately stood up. The first thing that struck him was at how big his old friend had gotten. When he last saw him, he was barely a season old himself. Back then, Little Foot was more than half his size. But now, Little Foot looked to be a hundred times his size! Even though he was now full grown, and a few seasons old, he looked like he just hatched out of his egg next to the now imposing Little Foot.

He smiled and thought to himself. _Wow! Little Foot had grown to be a fully remarkable long neck! Really big and strong! _He also noticed that his hide colour didn't change much since he remembered seeing him, and that he had developed the distinctive adult long neck features

Lesik immediately stepped forward to get closer look at Teek. When he saw the red eyes of the sharptooth, his own eyes went wide in surprise.

"Chomper? Is that you!"

Teek nodded. "Yup! It's me!"

"CHOMPER!" Lesik exclaimed as he trotted up to his old friend.

"LITTLE FOOT!" Teek exclaimed as he ran up to the big long neck.

Both fell in a warm heartfelt embrace. Both began giggling as they did so often when they were younglings.

"It's good to see you again, Chomper!"

"'Tis good to see YOU, too, old friend!"

Teek had grown up to be a pretty imposing sharptooth. When he was barely five seasons old, he was already almost as big as his mother; and when he reached his full height, he was almost a foot taller than his father; and he was probably one quarter bigger, too. He was big enough to wrap his head around the base of Little Foot's neck, despite the long neck`s imposing size. Little Foot felt Chomper's tears of joy run down his shoulders. His eyes were also moist from the overwhelming joy he felt at seeing his long lost friend again. He was also glad to know that Chomper also felt the same joy at seeing his long lost friend, brother; and in a sense, his saviour. He _did_ kinda save him, when he was just an egg. But he didn't take all the credit. His younghood friends also helped, in their own way.

After what seemed like an eternity to the watchful threehorns, the two finally separated. Both had big grins on their faces as they rubbed muzzles together to further consumate their lasting friendship.

"So tell me," Lesik finally began. "what brings you all the way here, so far from your home?"

"Well..." Teek seemed uneasy as he put his hands behind his back, looked down and scraped his footclaws across the rocky ravine ground. "I'd rather tell the story in front on all of our old friends. Petrie, Ducky... and even Spike and Cera... if it's okay with you."

Lesik thought a moment, then said. "Sure! Okay!"

Teek happily smiled.

"But that would mean letting you into our valley."

Teek's smile began to dissapear.

"Veek!", Lesik said, turing his attention to the senior threehorn behind him.

"Yes, Councilor Lesik?" Veek replied as he came forward.

"I'd like you to assign some of your guards to escort this sharptooth while I bring him into the valley."

"Wise precaution, Councilor! We do need to protect our herds while he's here."

"No! I mean to protect _him_ from those who would wish to attack him."

Veek was surprised. "Protect _HIM? _But, Councilor, with all due respect, he doesn't look like he needs any of our protection! If anything, we should be protecting our young ones from _him!"_

"I understand your concern, Veek; but you know how some of the threehorn residents we have here are overprotective of their young ones, and are eager to jump to conclusions. Just look at Councilor Topsy!"

Veek thought about this a moment, then nodded. "Besides, as long as Chomper promises not to attack any of us while he's here as our guest, we won't have anything to fear from him. Right, Chomp?"

Chomper nodded his head. "Uh huh! I won't attack or eat anybody! I promise! Cross my heart and hope to die!"

"That can be arranged..." Wendyk mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Celik asked him.

"Nothin'!" Wendyk said with a shake of his head.

"Then it's all settled!" Lesik spoke. "Okay, Chomper! Follow me. Celik, Wendyk, come with us! Veek, Cyrusk, you two stay here and keep guarding the mouth of the valley."

"Yes, Councilor." both threehorns replied in time.

With that, the party left the mouth of the valley and entered into the valley itself where Little Foot's friends would be anxious to get reacquainted with their old younghood friend.

As soon as they heard the news, they all rushed to Lesik's home to see if it was really true. Once they all realized that Teek was not going to hurt, harm or eat them, they greeted Teek with open arms; and the usual muzzle rubs and licks. They had all grown up to be fine adults! Petrie McFly- still being nicknamed "The Flyer" by everybody- had become the best of his kind with that ability. Teek noticed he hadn't lost any of his younghood colour. Alaina Ducksworth had dropped her old nickname "Ducky" long ago; though Little Foot still called her that on occasion, which still made her giggle. She still had the light green hue he remembered her having when he last saw her. Teek was saddened at the news that Spike had died in a tragic accident a few seasons ago. It seems he fell off a cliff to his death while chasing a wayward tree star blowing in the wind. Although he was a simpleton, everybody loved the big spiketail! And he was lucky. He was an orphan who had been adopted by Ducky's family. _I guess if Teek was an orphan, too, he'd've probably been adopted by grandma and grandpa,_ Little Foot thought to himself. _The only problem would've been feeding little Chomper. Even though he was a sharptooth, he'd've probably gotten used to the green diet like us. 'Less he starve to death. _But the entire valley mourned at the news of Spike's tragic death.

Cera Horn was the last to arrive at Little Foot's den that afternoon. At first, she thought the news she heard was a joke. But when she saw that the little sharptooth she had known so long ago was here now, and all grown up, she knew it was not a joke. She was shocked, even! She was tentative at first; but after Lesik was able to convince her that it was safe, she shared a shaky embrace with the big sharptooth.

"Don't worry, Cera! Chomper promised he wouldn't hurt any of us!" Lesik said.

"He did! He did! Yup! Yup! Yup!" Alaina Ducksworth chimed in.

"Well... I still think it was a bad idea letting him in to the Great Valley. Promises can easily be broken, you know!"

"Aww, Cera!" Lesik and Petrie both said.

Chomper just laughed. "Dear ol' Cera! You have not changed, even after all these seasons!"

With that, everybody had a good laugh. All except for Cera, who just "humpf"ed.

It struck Teek how much she had grown into a fine and elegant looking female threehorn. She even retained the orangish hue of her youth! Her eyes were the same colour as he remembered them. _If she were a sharptooth, I'd've probably taken her as a mate, _he thought.


	4. Chapter 3 Sharptooth Mission

**CHAPTER 3**

**SHARPTOOTH MISSION**

That evening, while everyone of the green eaters prepared their evening feast in honour of their guest, Chomper went down to the river to collect some fish for his own meal. Under the watchful eyes of the threehorn guards assigned to protect him, he gathered up fish after fish and placed them in a large leaf tray that he will use to carry them back to Lesik's lair with. Most of the green eaters who had come down to the river to drink stayed well away from him, but there were a few curious onlookers who came closer to get a better look at him. _Hunh! They can't help but be curious. They've probably never seen a sharptooth before._ Teek thought to himself.

There was a funny incident with a threehorn mother who had brought her two younglings with her so that they could see this "oddity" for themselves. "You see, young ones?" the mother would say. "This is what a REAL sharptooth looks like. Don't get too close, now! Or he may bite you!"

Chomper thought he'd have some fun with them. He lowered his head towards the two younglings and let out a huge roar. Both younglings screamed and hid behind their mother. Chomper let out a throaty laugh, smiled and winked at the mother.

The mother smiled back. "Come, young ones. Let us not dally." she said to her brood as they walked away.

During feasting time, all of Little Foot's friends had gathered up all of their green stuff. Berries, fruits, various grasses... and the generous helpings of tree stars they loved to munch on. While they were munching away on their greens, Chomper was munching on his two dozen or so fish he had brought over from the river. Cera occasionally stopped her munching when her gaze caught sight of Chomper tearing into one of the fish he caught. _Disgusting!_ She thought to herself. _With that meal, Teek __should be satisfied for awhile, _was all Lesik could think about.

During the meal, there was plenty of pleasant conversation. Little Foot and his friends told stories of life in The Great Valley, and the adventures they've had over the past few seasons. Chomper told his own stories about life in the sharptooth lands, of how he and his parents had to eventually leave their island home due to lack of food. They literally had to swim to the mainland, as there was no longer a land bridge linking the island to the mainland shore. By this time, Chomper was old enough to be able to hold his own with his parents, when it came to running and swimming. It surprised all of them that a sharptooth like him was able to swim. "Of course! All sharptooth like me can swim, if they had to." he said with a smile.

Although they were all adults now, none of the green eaters had taken a mate yet. But Alaina and Cera each had their own potential suitor. While Alaina was more receptive to her suitor's advances, Cera kept pushing the male threehorn away. Chomper was not at all surprised to learn that her suitor was Wendyk, the threehorn guard he had met earlier that day. Cera kept saying that her duties as a medicine threehorn and caretaker to all of The Great Valley residents didn't allow her to have a mate and start a family of her own. Chomper thought they'd make a perfect fit! Both stubborn, both set in their ways of thinking, and both too proud for their own good._ Maybe someday, she'll warm up to him _he thought. Lesik was so busy being Head of The Great Valley Council, he had not even considered searching for a mate of his own; but he would gladly court any female long neck that would catch his eye, if the chance ever arose. As for Petrie? Well, as he put it "the right flyer had not come along yet."

Chomper told his own story of how he took a mate of his own shortly after he came of age. It was a gorgeous sharptooth named V'Leck Greene, so named because of her pale green skin. They both had a son, whom they named Roary, because he liked to roar a lot at anything he saw. Then things got worse. They eventually had to separate over arguments on how to raise their youngling. Chomper wanted to teach Roary the green eater's language, and their ways; in the hopes of eventually joining up with Little Foot and the rest of the gang again, introducing them to Roary; and having him talk to them in their tongue. But V'leck was vehemently opposed. She felt that her kind should not have anything to do with the green eaters, as they were only for hunting and eating. And that he was talking foolishness, as well as having to get over this nonsense of knowing the green eater language and the fact that his life was saved all those seasons ago by them. _It was all just a coincidence! _She would keep telling him. Finally, she felt it best that she should leave him, take custody of their son, and raise her on her own. Chomper was very sad that day. His ex mate did allow Roary to visit him from time to time afterwards; which brought him a little bit of joy out of the sad situation; but he never saw her again.

"I do not like her! She is MEAN!" Ducky would say.

"Me agree! VERY mean!" Petrie said as well.

When the conversation revolved around their parents, Chomper was sorry to hear that all of their mothers, fathers and grandparents, were all dead. All except for Cera's father, who was still a member of The Great Valley Council; but he was now so old and weak that everybody felt his time was near. Cera was obviously not looking forward to that day.

Chomper relayed his own story of how his father died a few seasons after they left their island sanctuary; and then his mother just after he had become mates with V'Leck. Almost as if she had held on to life long enough just to see him become a potential parent himself. In her final moments, she had said that she was proud of him and that she loved him. She had placed her hand on his cheek one last time before she let out her last breath. His only regret was not having her live long enough to see her grandson hatch from his egg. That would've brought him great joy, especially since Roary was the spitting image of his father! Lesik told him something he remembered his mother telling him a long time ago: That his mother would always be with him, although he would not always see her. Chomper thought that was very comforting advice.

At this point, Lesik changed the subject. "But Chomper, you still haven't told us why you are here..."

"Yes! I was going to get to that..." A small rustling sound in the tall grass to his left made him turn his head slightly. "Excuse me..." He said, lifting up a finger. He snatched at something in the grass, then lifted his head again. He beared a rather large squirming rodent in his teeth. He dropped it into his mouth, chewed on it a few times, audibly crunching the bones inside the hapless rodent body before swallowing his morsel with a huge _GULP. _"Aah... Dessert... Hits the spot!"

"EEEWWW... Disgusting!" Cera spitted out.

"Oh, Cera!" Alaina said with some frustration.

Chomper then relayed his story. "You see, for a short time now, a horrible disease has been running rampant throughout our lands. It all started, as we would come to find out, when one of us ate an infected long neck. It wasn't long before he started getting sick. By the time he reach our healers, he had already grown very weak, and had a real high fever. The medicine sharptooth who touched his forehead said it felt like a hot red mountain!

Chomper then stared off into the distance. "We thought nothing of it at first. He was a strong sharptooth. We just assumed he would recover from the sickness. But the very next day, he started coughing up his own blood; and was so weak, he couldn't even move! Then more of the sick began arriving to see our healers. More and more came each day! We eventually had to place them in a valley away from the others to keep them from infecting the still healthy. But despite that, the infection is still spreading! We don't even know how it is spread to begin with!

"Then came the news that that first sharptooth who came down with the sickness had died. He was a good friend of mine!" Tears began rolling down Chomper's face, and he sniffed. "It was only after more of us died that I took it upon myself to make the journey here seeking your help." He sniffed again as he wiped the tears away with the back of one of his hands. "I came here not only because I am a sharptooth of some important standing among my kind, but because I am the only one who knows your language, and that I knew you could trust me."

The tears flowed again as he looked at his friends, sobbing. "This disease is unknown to us! We have no idea how to cure it! Please help us, or we are all DEAD!"

Chomper then just sat there with his head in his hands, crying. All of the green eaters, except for Cera, gathered around him in a comforting manner. Everybody looked sad, even the threehorn guards, who were standing a short distance away from them; but still close enough to hear the entire conversation.

Lesik was the first to speak."Don't cry, Chomper. Of course we'll help."

"Oh, yes! We will! We will!" Alaina chimed in.

"I help, too!" Petrie finally said.

Teek looked up. "You... you really mean that?"

All three of them nodded and "MmHmm"d.

Chomper smiled. "Oh, thank you! THANK YOU! You don't know how much this means to me!" He then hugged all those around him.

Cera still stood apart, though. Lesik turned his attention towards her."Cera?"

After a few moments, she spoke. "Well... How do we know it's a green eater disease that's infected his kind? I mean... It could also be an unknown sharptooth disease."

"Cera! Didn't you hear a word he said! They started getting sick when one of them ate an infected long neck. The disease _must've_ come from a green eater! Besides, you're the only healer amongst us! We know nothing about medicine! You may be the only one who can really save Chomper's kind!"

"Well... I mean... There are many green eater diseases the sharptooth could be infected with, based on what he's said... I... I w-w-would need to see one of them up close to get a better idea of what they could be suffering from..."

It was obvious to Lesik that Cera was being more and more careful about the words she said around others. She didn't directly insult Chomper and his kind, or wished death on them all. But he knew that, in her mind, Cera already decided not to do anything. She has already decided it was best to send Chomper home so that he can eventually die with the rest of his kind. He knew that if Cera was still a youngling, she would've blurted out: "So what if they're sick! LET THEM DIE! That way, there won't be any more sharptooth left to eat us!"

An image flashed in Lesik's head of Chomper pouncing on Cera, pinning her down to the ground, him roaring in her face and saying: "If you were ANY OTHER THREEHORN, I'd tear you apart RIGHT NOW! But because I still consider you a friend DESPITE your biggoted attitude; and because I know that, deep down inside, you consider me YOUR friend, too-even though you're too afraid to show it- I'm only giving you a warning! But if you EVER insult me and my kind again, I WILL kill you! GRRRR!" But as an adult, she picked her words more carefully.

"That means... that we'll have to travel to the sharptooth lands... to see this sickness for ourselves, and find a cure for it... But we're adults now. We can't just pick up and leave, like we used to. We have responsibilities. We'll need Council approval, if we are to travel to the sharptooth lands..."

A worried look spread across Chomper's facial features. Although Lesik and his friends said they would help, if their Council forbade them to go, all was lost, and his journey to The Great Valley would've been for nothing.

"I'll have to call forth an emergency meeting tomorrow at first light, but it'll take a unanimous agreement from all of the members before we are to embark on this mission of mercy..."

Lesik then turned her attention to Cera. "And Cera, since you're the only one who knows anything about healing, you'll have to come with us. Agreed?"

Cera thought it over for a few moments. Everybody held their breath in this awkward silence. Finally, she let out a sigh. "Oh, all right!"

Everybody threw their arms up in the air and shouted a big "HOORAY!"

"I promise you, Cera, you won't regret this!" Lesik said.

"I'm regretting it already!" Cera grumbled.

"We all need to be present at the Council meeting tomorrow. And Chomper? I may have to call on you to make your plea to the rest of the coucilors."

Chomper nodded. "I'll be ready."

"Cera's father may be the hardest to convince, but I'm sure we can sway him. Right, Cera?"

"Whatever!" she said indifferently.

"It's settled, then! We should all get some rest. The big silver circle has already risen in the sky, and we've got a big day tomorrow. Chomper, you're welcome to share my den for the night..."

"Thanks! I would like that very much."

With that, everybody said their farewells as they each headed off towards their own dwellings to retire for the night. Only the two threehorn guards assigned to watch over Chomper remained at the mouth of Lesik's nest.


	5. Chapter 4 Great Valley Council

**CHAPTER 4**

**GREAT VALLEY COUNCIL**

The next morning, they both awoke at first light. The two threehorn guards were lying on the grass nearby fast asleep. _They must've dozed off a short time after WE went to sleep. _Lesik thought to himself. _I hope they were sleeping when Chomper went to go make potty last night. There would've been NO END to the argument as to which nearby bush Chomper had to go into._ Lesik sighed inwardly as he rolled his eyes.

He had a light breakfast of some grass and yellow flowers. Chomper said he wasn't hungry. He was still digesting the big meal he had last night, and didn't need to go to the river to fish. Lesik just shrugged as they made their way to the plain where the Council meetings were always held.

Lesik sent flyers, including Petrie, to summon all of the Council members to the emergency meeting.

They all arrived shortly thereafter. Not only them, but a large number of the Great Valley residents. Cera showed up with her father, Councilor Topsy. Alaina showed up together with Petrie. It seemed like the whole Great Valley had showed up to attend this emergency meeting!

Councilor Topsy didn't waste any time. "What's this all about, Lesik? And what is that _sharptooth_ doing here!" He said the word so hatefully that Chomper felt like ripping his guts out. He let loose a growl in the elder Councilor's direction.

Lesik came forward and placed his foot on the speaking rock. "I called this emergency meeting because a major crisis has been brought to my attention last night..."

"What sort of 'crisis'!" Concilor Topsy asked.

"I'm going to let the sharptooth Teek here tell us all about it..."

Lesik stepped off and motioned Chomper to take his place on the speaking rock to make his plea. There were a lot of uneasy whispers among those assembled in the plain. Some of the councilors felt like protesting against letting this sharptooth say his piece. _Assuming he can speak at all!_ But they knew that Lesik, as Head of the Council, could defer speech to anybody he chooses, and there isn't anything anybody can do about it.

It didn't take long for Chomper to relate his story of the disease that is afflicting his people. Many were surprised at what was discovered to be the source of the sickness. Many more were surprised that the sharptooth could even speak _at all!_ They've never heard of a sharptooth speaking the green eater language before. But there were a few who had heard the legend of how Little Foot had rescued a sharptooth from almost certain death and taught him their language, so they were not surprised to see here, before their very eyes, the legendary sharptooth of those many season ago.

When Chomper told the news that his kind was dying because of this disease, many heavy gasps erupted from the crowd.

Councilor Topsy cut through the noise. "What proof have you of this! What proof have you that it was one of our kind that caused your disease!"

"I do not need to show you proof for you to know that it is true. Why would I lie to you?"

"Well... there are many reasons a sharptooth would lie. Like getting us into your _stomach,_ for one thing!"

Chomper roared and jumped off the rock towards the elder threehorn, who did not back down. "HEY! I swore an oath before I came into your valley not to lay a hand on any of you, and I have kept that promise! But if YOU'RE going to start INSULTING me, I may just have to-"

Lesik quickly intervened before things got any worse than they already were; for by this time, both of their foreheads were touching each other, and they both had an angry look on their facial features.

"Hey, hey, HEY! Gentlemales! GENTLEMALES!" He said as he separated the two. "Butting heads will accomplish nothing! Whatever differences you have amongst yourselves is your own business; but as long as I AM COUNCIL LEADER, there will be order!"

Chomper nodded. "Of course, Lesik."

"Understood." Councilor Topsy grumbled.

Cera, who was sitting in the crowd watching all this, noticed that while her father was standing forehead to forehead with Chomper, his hind legs were shaking. He had never done that before. It was a good thing that Little Foot intervened to separate the two. Otherwise, he would've collapsed right there in front of everybody. _Maybe he really IS getting too old and weak._ She was saddened by the thought that he may soon die, and that she'd never see him again.

"Please, continue..." Lesik motioned for Chomper to reassume his place on the speaking rock to go on with his story. This was where he made his plea to the Council to launch an expedition of mercy to his lands in order to find a cure for the disease.

This prompted a lot of screams of protest and cries of absolute madness from the crowd. There were arguments and counter arguments that soon ensued from the council members. Lesik had to assume his place on the speaking rock and let loose the biggest roar he had ever produced just to quiet everything down and restore order back to the proceedings. "Now... one at a time... I will hear your arguments..."

The deliberations continued as such for the rest of the morning. Councilor Topsy argued the most of all. Despite all of the arguments in favour of launching such an errand of mercy, he stuck fast to his opinion against it. But everyone could see that it was draining him. A few even felt that he needed to just drop dead right then and there in order for the council to reach a unanimous agreement.

One of the more poignant arguments he had had to do with the total annihilation of the sharptooth population.

"If they all died, we would no longer have to worry about wandering away from The Great Valley with the fear of getting eaten. We could go wherever we pleased!"

"But don`t you see! The disease will eventually spread from the sharptooth back to us, and then we will ALL die as well! Which is why we need to stop it before it's too late!" Was Lesik's counter argument.

"BAH! You're talking nonsense!"

"NO, I'M NOT! It's a plain and simple fact! ASK YOUR DAUGHTER! She'll tell you!"

Although Chomper was fuming inside at how ridiculous this all was, and as much as he wanted to just tear Cera's father to shreads, he had to keep his promise not to hurt or kill anybody.

It was not until midday, when the big bright circle was at its highest point in the sky, that all the arguments were completed. Lesik then took his place on the speaking rock once more. "I now put it to a Council vote! All those in favour of launching this mission of mercy into the sharptooth lands, please say 'Aye'"

There were ten members in all on the Council. Two for each species living in The Great Valley of Peace. The "aye"s echoed throughout the plain as each member in turn voiced their approval. When it came to the threehorns, although the junior Council member said his "aye" right away, Councilor Topsy hesitated. Mostly because he still felt that this was a foolish idea, and because he did not want to see his daughter leave for the sharptooth lands, never to be seen again. But he also knew that it was her duty, her _solemn_ duty, as a healer, to protect and preserve all life, no matter what kind they are. She made this vow to the elder healer threehorn who taught her everything she needed to know about being a healer. Therefore, she was going to go, like it or not, want to or not.

He felt Lesik staring down at him. If he cast his vote against this endeavour, nobody will ever let him live it down. He finally sighed heavily and let loose a meek "aye".

"I'm sorry! What was that?" Lesik taunted.

He angrily looked up at Lesik and blurted out. "AAAAAAYE!"

Lesik beamed. "And an 'aye' from me, as well! It's unanimous! The mission of mercy to the sharptooth lands shall go forth!"

A cheer erupted from the crowd, Ducky and Petrie shared a joyous embrace, Cera bore a long face and let out a huge sigh saying "OOH, boy! Here we go again!" Chomper celebrated the most of all. He jumped with his fist in the air, screamed "YAHOOOOO!" let out a huge roar of joy and did a sharptooth happy dance.

When everything had calmed down, Lesik took his stance on the speaking rock again. "Myself, Cera Horn-our resident healer, Alaina Ducksworth, Petrie 'The Flyer', and Teekul 'Chomper' Sharpe, of course, will be the members for this expedition. We will leave at first light tomorrow."

"NO!" Teek interjected. "If we are to save all sharptooth still left alive, we must leave immediately!"

Lesik nodded. "Okay! We must make preparations, and we will leave as soon as we're ready."

There was a smattering of applause as the meeting was adjourned, and everybody went about their assigned duties. They still had a lot of work to do!


	6. Chapter 5 The Journey There

**CHAPTER 5**

**THE JOURNEY THERE**

It was mid afternoon by the time they were gathered at the entrance to The Great Valley of Peace, ready to leave. Again, it seemed like the entire valley was there to see them off. Parting embraces were shared between family and friends. There was sadness in both Councilor Topsy and Cera's facial features. Cera didn't want to go, but she knew she had to. Her sworn duty as a healer obliged her. Councilor Topsy did not want to let her go, and risk losing his favourite daughter forever, but he knew he had to let her go. Tears ran down both their faces as they shared a long parting embrace.

"I'm scared, daddy!" she sobbed.

"I know. But you must be brave, my daughter. I know you will do the right thing. I raised you as such."

A few of the valley residents even shared clawshakes, embraces and well wishes with Chomper, including all of the members of the Council.

Finally, Lesik announced their departure, and it was among the sad goodbyes and good luck wishes that they left The Great Valley, which has been their sanctuary for as long as any of them can remember.

They walked on in silence for a bit, until Chomper broke it with a question for Lesik.

"I'm curious. Are all of your Council sessions always like that?"

Lesik chuckled. "Not always. We are usually a lot quicker in reaching a concensus. Matter of fact, today was the longest I recall any of our sessions had lasted!"

Chomper nodded.

"What about you? Do you have a Council of Elders, like we do?"

"Yes. But we do things differently. When our Council Leader tells us to do something, we usually do it. But if someone were to oppose the decision, he gets banned from the Council. And if he resists, he is usually killed."

Everybody looked at Chomper with large eyes. "Wow! That IS a different way of doing things." Alaina commented. "Anyway, I think that if females were on the Council, things would be a whole lot easier. Yup! Yup! Yup!"

"I'm sure YOU think it's a good idea, but I don't think a female will become a member of The Great Valley Council anytime soon." Cera commented.

"No one's ever thought of letting sharptooth females onto our Council, either!" Teek said. "But Little Foot, if the Council only allows two of the oldest of each kind in The Great Valley, why are you on the Council? Aren't there any older long necks living in the valley?

"Actually, after Little Foot's grandma and grandpa died, he became second oldest long neck in Great Valley, by only a few days." Petrie said from his perch up on Lesik's head. "Also, it natural for him to inherited job of Council Leader from his grandpa."

Lesik sighed. "True... but it's not been easy."

"I can understand that." Chomper nodded.

A short time later, they had arrived at the border of green eater country. Two threehorn guards had accompanied them to the very edges of their land. One of them just happened to be Wendyk, Cera's potential suitor.

During their journey, Wendyk tried on numerous occasions to talk to her about... 'them'. Wendyk tried to convince her that they would be the ideal couple. A perfect match. Cera stuck to her argument that her duties as a healer would keep her too busy to be able to raise a family, and that it was useless to be mates with any threehorn male if she was never going to produce eggs. Wendyk tried to rebuttle that he didn't care about fathering hatchlings. All he wanted was for her and him to be together as a joined male and female threehorn pair. Cera rebuttled that he was talking nonsense. That producing eggs was the soul purpose for threehorn males and females to be together, and that her duties as a healer would not allow her to be a mate or a mother. She even told him to try getting together with another threehorn female of the valley who wants to make eggs with him. Wendyk said that he didn't care about any of the other female threehorns. That all he cared about was her. Cera finally growled him into silence.

"Wow! Who knew love could be so complicated?"Alaina commented.

"Veeery complicated!" Petrie said as he rolled his eyes.

"Yes! I oughta know!" Chomper chimed in.

At the border, the two threehorn guards parted company with them saying that this was as far as they could go. Lesik thanked them for escorting them to the border, and that they should be back real soon.

Wendyk cried out "I'll be waiting for you, Cera!" before he turned around and walked back towards The Great Valley. Cera rolled her eyes and let out a huge sigh.

From this point, they were travelling into the unknown. They were in sharptooth country, with their trusted friend Chomper as their guide.

It took them a full two days to arrive at their destination. Mostly because Chomper was pushing them hard. He wanted to get back to his home country as soon as possible.

But when the green eaters were finally able to convince him to stop and rest, the conversations turned more pleasant. During their meals, they sang the songs they remembered from their respected youths. Chomper taught them some of the songs he learned as a youngling that were passed down to him from his parents(loosely translated to the green eater language); and the green eaters taught him the songs they learned as younglings themselves. Chomper figured he could find rough translations to his native language for them.

There were a few minor incidents and skirmishes with other sharptooths who tried to attack and kill the green eaters, thinking they were prey ripe for the taking; but Chomper was able to fend them off, or talk his way out of what would be a bloody confrontation, if he had not mentioned their errand of mercy. _It's a good thing Chomper is here to guide us._ Lesik thought. _If it weren't for him, we would've been killed and eaten a hundred times by now._

One particular incident had a funny outcome.

While they were resting, two sharptooths who looked almost exactly like Teek came out of the forest, roaring and baring their razor sharp teeth, ready to strike at the green eaters.

Chomper immediately got to his feet, waives his arms in the air, and spoke to them in the sharptooth language.

"_STOP! These prey are not to be attacked! They are mine!"_

"_And why not? Surely, you cannot eat all of that meat in one sitting." _one of the sharptooth, slightly larger than Chomper, and of a little bit darker shade of green than he was, said.

"_They are for my mate and son. We are to feast on them tonight. They are prepared to die so that we can have our bellies full."_

"_Then why have you not killed them already, if they have already offered their lives so that you and your family can have a full belly?"_ the smaller sharptooth asked.

"_It's just that it is easier for me to have them walk to my den so that they can be killed there, instead of killing them here and now and having to drag their carcasses all the way home, which is quite a ways from here."_

The two sharptooth eyed each other momentarily, then the larger one spoke again. _"All right. You can have them."_

"_Yeah. It's not as if there's a lack of green eaters around here to hunt, anyway." _the smaller one added

"_Thank you."_

"_Strength to you and yours!"_ the larger one finished before they both turned around and walked away.

Once they were out of sight, Chomper breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Lesik walked up to him and asked. "What did they say?"

"They thought you were fair game, and wanted to kill you."

"Humpf! And what did you tell them?" Cera asked.

"That you were for my mate and son, that I was walking you to my den, and that you were prepared to die so that we can have our bellies full."

Everybody broke out into laughter.

As they continued on their journey, Chomper mentioned. "I think those two sharptooth were brothers."

"How can you tell?" Cera asked "You all look the same to me!"

Chomper smiles. "Oh, we can tell! The smaller one seems to have taken on more the traits of his mother than his father."

Cera rolled her eyes. "Whatever!"

When they finally reached Chomper's home country, they were met at the border by two sharptooth guards who, were it not for the varying shades in colour, the green eaters would swear there were Chomper's twin siblings. _Just how many sharptooth who look like Chomper ARE there in this place!_ Cera thought to herself.

"_Halt! Who goes there!_?" one of the guards said as he came forward.

Chomper stepped forward to greet him._ "It is I, Teekul Sharpe! I have returned with the green eaters who will help cure us from the disease that afflicts us." _

"_We expected you sooner, Teekul! Things have gotten worse! MUCH worse!"_

Chomper got a worried look.

"_Chief Berserker anxiously awaits you. You know the way."_

Both guards stepped aside to allow the expedition party to pass.

"Follow me." Chomper said as he led them past the guards and into the dense forest.

The guards watched them walk past. While Lesik and Cera remained calm, Petrie and Alaina looked at them nervously as they walked past.

When they were out of earshot, one of the guards spoke up. _"Those green eaters look REAAAALLY succulent!"_

The other guard shot him a look. _"Remember your orders, Furnok! They are not to be harmed or eaten!"_

"_A shame. That long neck could feed my family for a month!"_

The other guard nodded. _"I know."_


	7. Chapter 6 Valley Of The Sick

**CHAPTER 6**

**VALLEY OF THE SICK**

As they were walking, Petrie spoke up. "OOOH! I not like way those sharptooth look at me!" He was visibly shaking.

"Me, neither! No! No! NOOOOOOO!" Alaina also said.

"Relax, guys! They have orders to ensure your protection."

"Yeah! Well... orders can be broken, you know!" Cera stated.

"NO!" Chomper screamed as he shot her a look. "Not these orders! There is too much at stake."

Cera was taken aback. She wanted to argue her point of view with Chomper, but knew that he could only become angrier at this. So, she decided to keep quiet.

Eventually, they reached a clearing that seemed to dissapear into a valley, with mountain ranges on either side. There were three sharptooth standing at the top of the hill leading down into the valley. They appeared to be conversing. One of them caught sight of Chomper and his party, and motioned for the larger sharptooth to follow his gaze.

"_TEEKUL!"_ the big sharptooth roared.

Chomper stepped forward. _"My leader!"_

Both sharptooths exchanged bows with their arms outstretched.

"_We are grateful for your return!"_ the big sharptooth eyed the green eaters. _"I see they have answered our plea. I am glad!"_

Chomper nodded, then turned his attention to the green eaters. "My friends, this is Chief Berserker the Fearless, head of our Grand Council."

The big sharptooth bowed with his hands outstretched. _"Welcome to our lands."_

They were all amazed at the massive size of this sharptooth standing before them. He had to be at least 15 feet tall with sharp teeth at least 3 inches long. It was no small wonder that he was head of the sharptooth council! His sheer size along is probably enough to have everyone do as he says! All of the green eaters thought it curious that he was wearing a necklace of small sharptooth bones around his neck, as well as a headdress made up of other small sharptooth bones and long blades of grass; and holding a staff of wood with the likeness of a sharptooth's head carved on top. They'd have to remember to ask Chomper about their significance. His colour was most unusual as well, for a sharptooth! He was a deep black, with purplish pink horizontal stripes all up and down his back and down his lengthy tail. His eyes appeared to be almost as red as Chomper's.

Chomper translated the Chief's welcoming phrase for his friends, then introduced them all in turn, and they returned his bow when their names were called. After Lesik was introduced, he stepped forward and bowed before the Chief. "It's an honour to meet the fellow leader of the sharptooth who reside in this land. I am the Council Leader of The Great Valley of Peace, where a lot of my fellow green eaters now reside. I am known as 'Little Foot' to my closest friends. I do not mind if you were to call me that yourself, as well."

When Chief Berserker heard the translation, he broke out into throaty laughter and said something to Chomper, who then translated for Lesik. He could barely contain his laughter. "He thinks your youngling name is funny. He also says that there are no more 'little foots' on you."

Lesik broke out into laughter himself. Chomper couldn't contain himself, either. Chief Berserker joined in the merriment.

The happy moment was interrupted by several sharptooth arriving at the valley entrance with two more of the sick. They were so weak, they had to be carried by two sharptooth each, who had a hold of each of their arms. After Chief Berserker eyed them for a moment, he motioned them down into the valley saying _"All right. Put them with the others." _

As soon as they left, he turned to face Chomper. He had a sad look on his facial features as he placed a hand on his shoulder. _"Teek, things have gotten worse while you were away."_

"_How bad is it?" _Chomper asked in a worried tone.

"_Bad enough. See for yourself."_ Chief Berserker motioned Chomper forward so that he can look down into the valley.

As he stepped forward to look into the valley, his eyes grew wide and he gasped.

"Guys?" he mouthed. "Brace youselves! You're in for quite a shock!"

All of the green eaters stepped forward to see what Chomper was looking at. Everyone of them had a look of surprise on their facial features. Everywhere they looked, they saw sharptooth lying on the ground. Many were too weak to even move. Others looked to have been dead for some time, based on the flies buzzing around them. If anybody was in charge of removing the corpses, it looks like they have not gotten around to removing the ones that were lying there dead. But a few sharptooth were strong enough to stagger around. They were clutching their bellies, and looked to be in a great amount of pain. Everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before they would become so weak and just collapse to the ground and wait for death to claim them. They could smell the scent of death emanating from the valley. Those that were still alive to smell it were no doubt wishing for a quick end to their suffering. There were many cries ringing out throughout the valley. The green eaters didn't need to hear a translation from Chomper to know that they were crying out for help, and probably begging to see their families one last time before they died. They saw healers running around every which way trying as best they can to tend to everybody who called for help, but they were already too overwhelmed as it is. They saw one healer suddenly clutch his belly and fall to his knees as he coughed up blood. He was quickly picked up by two of his colleagues and dragged off to join the others who are sick.

Cera was the first to speak. "By the Primal Egg! There must be hundreds of them! THOUSANDS of them! How are we ever gonna help all of these sharptooth!"

Lesik sighed. "We have to try, Cera!"

"NO! IT'S USELESS! Don't you see! These sharptooth are beyond all hope! THERE'S NO WAY WE COULD BE ABLE TO SAVE THEM!"

Meanwhile, Chomper had leaned a hand on Lesik's massive forelimb to keep from collapsing. Tears rolled down his facial features as he sniffed. When Cera said her last sentence about not being able to save anybody, he spoke up. "We HAVE to! They're my brethren! We MUST save them! WE MUST..." Chomper pounded on Lesik's forelimb so hard with the side of his fist that it made him say "Ow!" Finally, his sorrow became so overwhelming that he fell to his knees sobbing, sniffing and heaving.

Lesik bent his head down to comfort his younghood friend. "It's okay, Chomper. We're gonna do everything we can to help save them. That's what we came here for."

Eventually, Chomper's sadness subsided and he was able to get back to his feet. Chief Berserker came up beside him, looking very sad. He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and just walked away. Although he said nothing, Teek knew what he meant through his silence. "I know you and your green eater friends will do whatever you can to help us. But if you fail, I will not hold it against you or them."

When Lesik saw that Chomper was fully recovered from his sadness episode, he told the others "All right! Let's get started! We have a lot of work to do." and he led the rest of them down into the valley to offer their aid where ever aid was needed, which was pretty much everywhere at the moment.


	8. Chapter 7 Nervous Breakdown

**CHAPTER 7**

**NERVOUS BREAKDOWN**

Two days after arriving in The Valley Of The Sick, Cera almost completely lost it. While she was examing several sharptooth, she heard the sounds of horror all around her. Many sharptooth were crying out in anguish, calling for help, reaching out for her to get her attention, have her get them some water, or whatever they needed, or wanted. She heard many of them sobbing for their mates, their sons, their daughters, mothers and fathers. Eventually, she reached her breaking point. She became completely disoriented by all of the sounds which seemed to only grow louder and more confusing with every passing moment. Finally, she just started shaking uncontrollably. She collapsed onto the grassy ground, shut her eyes tight and grinded her teeth. She put her front forepaws over her earholes, trying to block out the horrible sounds, but it was no use. Finally, she let out a terrible blood curdling scream that seemed to go on for an eternity.

Chomper happened to be close by. He dropped whatever he was doing and ran to her. He knelt down beside her and tried to comfort her by placing his arms around her neck and holding her close. "It's okay, Cera! I'm right here! Shh! SSSSHHH!" he said as he tried to soothe her.

Eventually, she just broke down and cried. Chomper sat down beside her and held her head in his lap. "It's all right, Cera! Let it out! Let it AAAALL out! You'll feel much better after. SSSSHHHH!"

Two sharptooth healers came towards them seeing if they could help. Chomper waived them off saying. _"It's okay! I got her! She'll be fine in a little while."_

A third one ran towards them, but the other two motioned that it was all right, and to go back to whatever he was doing.

"_What happened?" _he asked.

"_She__ just__ snapped..."_ one of the healers said as they all went back about their business.

"_Hmmm... Poor threehorn!"_

Chomper started rocking her head back and forth and sang her a few bars of a lullabye he remembered his mother singing to him to put him to sleep when he was a youngling.

Eventually Cera's sobbing quieted down enough so that she could say what was bothering her. "The sounds! I CAN'T BARE TO HEAR THE SOUNDS! It's just too much!"

"I know! I know!"

After another fit of loud sobbing, she confided. "I miss my home! I miss The Great Valley! I miss daddy!"

"I know, Cera, I know!" then Chomper lifted her head up with his hands to face him. He was kneeling in front of her. "But remember? Before you left the valley? Your father told you to be brave and be strong, right?" Cera sniffed once, then nodded. "Well, he really meant it! And that phrase should take on no more meaning than it does right now!"

After a moment, Chomper continued. "Look around you!"

Cera hesitated.

"I'm serious! Look around you!"

Cera finally did.

"All of these sharptooth are counting on you to save them. You... can't... let... them... down! Okay!"

After a few moments, Cera sniffed, slowly nodded and said a soft "okay."

Chomper smiled and laid a hand on her cheek. "At a girl! Now, come on. I'll get you some water." They both got up and walked off towards the nearby pond. Chomper laid a comforting hand in the middle of her shoulders as he led her away.


	9. Chapter 8 The Cure

**CHAPTER 8**

**THE CURE**

The day after, Cera, in true healer's fashion, came up with the answer as to what disease was afflicting all of the sharptooth. She reached this conclusion by examining several of the sharptooth who were still in the initial stages of the disease, and who allowed her to get close enough to let her poke and prood their bodies, as well as look inside their mouths.

When she and Chomper found the Lead Healer to tell him what they found, Cera laid it all out for him. Chomper acted as translator. "We call the sickness 'Bloody Tummy'. It causes a really high fever, huge tummy aches, weakness, and what we call the 'blood vomit'."

"_How is the disease spread?"_

"We're not sure, exactly; but we believe it has something to do with the air we breathe and the water we drink. Someone can also catch it when a green eater sneezes on another green eater, or gets touched in some manner. We usually get it in the hot times, when the river water gets warmer."

"_If this is a green eater disease, how do you explain us getting it?"_

"It seems quite obvious to me! If one of you sharptooth ate an already infected green eater, the sickness would've passed into the sharptooth's blood when he swallowed the meat. Then, when he touched somebody-like his mate, or something- he would spread the sickness onto her, then onto her young ones, and so on. But just sneezing in the direction of another sharptooth is enough to spread the sickness, which is why we always kept those of us who got sick away from the rest of us who were still healthy."

The healer nodded. _"That is understood. Now, how do we cure it?"_

"We need to find a particular kind of medicine plant." She looked around. "LOTS of medicine plant! And quickly, too! These sharptooth don't have much time left!"

The healer nodded again. _"All right. I'll gather all of the other healers. Then you can show us where to find this healing plant."_

With that, he trotted off.

Chomper placed his arm around Cera's side and gave her a small hug. "Congratulations, Cera! You've given us hope again! I'm so proud of you!"

Cera happily accepted the hug. "Don't thank me yet, though! We've still got a long way to go. We're still not out of the woods, so to speak."

Chomper chuckled. "Dear ol' Cera! No matter what, you still manage to see the pond as half empty instead of half full!"

Cera was about to rebuttle when a roar coming from the entrance hill overlooking the valley got their attention. One of Chief Berserker's lieutenants was at top of the hill talking to a female sharptooth. Chomper thought she looked awfully familiar. Then it hit him. "I don't believe it!" he said.

"What?" Cera asked.

He started running towards the hill entrance to get a closer look at the female.

Cera followed not far behind. "Hey! WAIT UP!"

When he reached the base of the hill, he stopped and he gasped. _"V'Leck__!__"_

The female sharptooth turned her head towards him.

"_TEEKUL!"_ she screamed as she ran down towards him. _"I knew I'd find you here!" _They both joined their hands together and laid each other foreheads against each other.

When they separated, Chomper gestured towards Cera and introduced her. Cera said a meek "hello" when V'Leck nodded her head towards her.

Chomper spoke about wanting to introduce her to his other green eater friends when V'Leck interrupted him.

"_We can do that later."_ Her expression turned more serious. _"Teekul..." _she began as she grabbed his arms. _"It's about my son... OUR son!"_

"_What about__ him?"_

Then Chomper saw two sharptooth carrying down a young male sharptooth who was barely able to walk. He recognized the young male immediately. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed as he ran toward him.

"_Roary? ROARY! Can you hear me?"_ Chomper called as the sharptooth lay him down on the ground at his feet. Chomper kneeled down and picked his son's head up with his hands.

"_ROARY! Stay with me, son! Don't you go out on me!"_

Roary opened his eyes just a crack, then opened them a little wider to look up at the face of his father. _"Father."_ he said in a soft and hoarse voice. _"It's good to see you again..."_ He was struggling with every word, but he managed. _"Though I wish we could've met up again under better circumstances."_

Roary struggled to smile and laugh at his own joke. Then he started to cough uncontrollably as he turned on his side. He spat out a wad of blood just before he fell unconscious.

"_Roary!... ROARY! NO!"_ Chomper shut his eyes as he let go of his son's head and let it thump lightly to the ground_. _He started sobbing uncontrollably as V'Leck moved in to comfort him.

Cera moved in to check on the limp form of Roary. "He's still alive, but his breathing is very weak." she said as he put her muzzle against his mouth. "His heart's barely beating." she said as he put the side of her head against his chest. "His fever is also very high!" she said as she laid her chin on his forehead. "Definitely the symptoms of 'Bloody Tummy'" she said as she eyed the wad of blood on the ground Roary had spat out just moments ago.

By this time, two sharptooth nurses had rushed in to pick up the still form of Roary and carry him over to where the other sick were being kept.

V'Leck eyed Cera momentarily, then asked Chomper. _"Is this one of the green eater healers you said was coming to save us?"_

After Chomper finally got control of himself again, he nooded.

Cera screamed out as V'leck grabbed a hold of her forelimb. _"Please! You must save Roary! HE IS OUR ONLY SON!"_

Cera pulled away from V'Leck. Before she was able to move away, Chomper knelt down beside her. "Cera, if there was any time I needed you, now would be it! If not for me, then do it for my son! Give him a chance at life!"

Cera was speechless for a few moments, then she said. "I... I-I-I'll do whatever I can... I promise." She smiled lightly.

Chomper smiled back and touched her cheek with his hand.

Stomping sounds made her turn her head to see the Head Healer approaching her. _"I've gathered all of our better healers at the entrance of the valley. We'll be waiting for you." _he said as he marched off.

"I'm coming!" Cera said.

Chomper turn to face his ex mate. _"Duty calls."_ he smiled.

"_Hurry back!"_ V'Leck said as she touched his cheek with her hand and smiled.

When he finally separated from her, he and Cera walked off to join the assembled healers.

They didn't have to go far to find the medicine plant that was needed to cure the sharptooth of the sickness. All of the assembled sharptooth healers listened intently to Chomper's translation of Cera's description of what to look for in the actual plant, how to pull it up out of the ground by the base of it so that it gets uprooted cleanly, and doesn't get broken. She even demonstrated how it was done for them. Then she snapped one of the spiky plants in half to show the yellowish liquid inside that was the actual cure for the sickness.

"_And how is it ministered?"_ one of the healers asked.

After hearing Chomper's translation, she said. "Well, it's actually chewed a few times, and then swallowed. It tastes awful, but it works!" she finished with a toothy grin.

"_Our patients wouldn't mind the taste so much."_ another healer said. _"Except for one problem: We don't eat plants. None of us can stomach it. At least, those of us who can still keep their lunch down!"_ This brought out a small smattering of laughter among those assembled.

"Heh! We have old saying among our kind: A mouthful of sweet plant helps the medicine go down."

The Head Healer had a revelation. _"Yes, of course! We can minister the right dosage with a small portion of long neck meat! We keep a huge carcass of a long neck at the other end of the valley. It was brought down a few days ago, and we feed portions of it to those still well enough to be able to eat anything."_

"Well, there you have it! You already have the 'sweet plant', now all we need to do is gather up as much of the medicine plant as we can so we can start handing out the dosages."

"_EXCELLENT!"_ the Head Healer exclaimed. _"Thank you, Cera! We are forever in your debt!"_

"Aaw! Don't mention it!"

After everybody applauded their accomplishment so far, the Head Healer motioned for two of the healers to gather up all of the plants that were in the area of the forest where Cera brought them. They were going to need plenty more than what was in this part of the forest! The problem would be organizing enough gathering parties to collect enough medicine plants to cure thousands of sick sharptooth.


	10. Chapter 9 Taking A Breather

**CHAPTER 9**

**TAKING A BREATHER**

It didn't take long for gathering parties to be organized and sent out in all directions; and it didn't take much persuasion, either, to recruit eager volunteers to go searching and collecting all of the plants they could find.

As for the green eaters, while Cera and Petrie set out to search and gather the plants, Lesik and Alaina stayed in the valley to continue taking care of the sick. Chomper stayed in the valley to be with his son, in case he regained conciousness.

During a break, Lesik and Alaina wandered towards the edge of the valley for a little bit of peace and quiet. Chomper came to join them.

"Yesterday was a rough day!" Lesik began. "I've never seen so many sick in my entire life!"

"Mm Hmm!" Alaina hummed.

"This is a real epidemic!" Lesik said

"At least now, we have hope!" Chomper smiled.

"Did Cera sleep in your cave last night?" Lesik asked Chomper.

Chomper nodded. "She did!"

"That's funny. When we were young, we often huddled together for warmth while we slept; but I never thought she'd want to cuddle up with a sharptooth."

Chomper just shrugged. "Maybe she finally saw past her differences... and her prejudices about us. Besides, it seemed like she needed a friend, and just wanted to sleep under a roof, for a change; instead of underneath the little points of light in the sky, like she usually does."

Lesik nodded. "Come to think of it, you two seemed to have really warmed up to each other. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you two were mated!"

Chomper just laughed. "Maybe she's finally truly accepted me as a dear friend."

"It would seem so... I'm glad! She certainly has changed a lot since we set out on this journey! She's more eager to help, she's less selfish, and is more open to the ways of the sharptooth. She's like a completely different threehorn!"

Chomper nodded. "Whatever the outcome, this whole sequence of events will change our lives forever!"

"And how!" Alaina added.

They reached a shallow cliff where they were horrified to see all of the dead sharptooth bodies that were tossed in after they died.

"By the First Egg, look at all of 'em!" Alaina exclaimed. "There must be dozens of bodies down there. HUNDREDS of bodies!"

Just as she said this, two sharptooth nurses came over and dumped a body they were carrying into the abyss.

"With many more to follow, I fear." Lesik sadly said.

Chomper sniffed. "You know what the sad part is? Somewhere, down there, at the very bottom of that pile, lies my best friend: Patient Zero! The first one of us to get infected. We often hunted together. We were inseparable! Kinda like you guys!" Chomper laughed. "We..." he couldn't complete his sentence before he started sniffling and breathing in a shallow fashion again, and then came the tears again.

"Aw, Chomper!" Alaina said as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Are you going to start crying again?"

After a few moments, his shallow breathing and sniffling subsided. "I'll be alright." he said weakly as he wiped his cheeks with the backs of his hands.

"Come on! Let's get back to work." Lesik said.

As they were leaving, the same two sharptooth nurses were back to dump another body into the abyss.

As Chomper was walking back towards the sick area, he saw Cera was back with a first batch of medicine plants. She set them down on the grass as he came to greet her.

"I saw you were talking to Little Foot and Ducky. What were you talking about?"

Chomper just shrugged. "Nothing special."

Cera eyed him suspiciously. "You didn't tell them, did you!"

Chomper smiled. "I only told them what they needed to know." and winked at her.

Cera broke out in laughter. Chomper did, too. He then wrapped his arm around her neck and kissed her cheek.

"Anyway, where do you want these?" Cera asked, indicating the medicine plants.

"Uhm... Over by the valley entrance would be a good place to put them."

"Okay." She gathered up the plants to bring them over to where Chomper indicated he wanted them to go.

As they walked back towards the valley entrance, he saw that V'Leck was racing towards him.

"_Teekul! TEEKUL! I've been looking all over for you!"_

"_What is it!"_

"_It's Roary! He's regained consciousness! He's calling to you!"_

Chomper eyes lit up._ "I'll be right there!"_

With this V'Leck ran back towards Roary's lying place on the grass

"I'll see you later!" he said to Cera as he ran towards Roary's lying place himself. Cera proceded towards the valley entrance.

When Chomper arrived at his son's grasside, he saw he was already sitting up. _"It's okay, son! I'm here."_

"_Dad."_ Roary managed weekly. He tried to smile, but he couldn't hold it for long. He also couldn't hold himself up. He fell back, and wouldn't landed hard on the back of his head, had his mother not caught him. _"Oh, Roary! Please son, you must stay still. You are still very weak."_

He looked up at his mother and mouthed the word _"Water!"_ to her.

"_I'll get some for you. Teek?"_ she said. Chomper immediately took told of his son's head and laid it down in his lap.

After a moment, Roary looked up at his father. _"Dad? Is it true what mom said, that your green eater friends found the cure to the sickness?"_

Chomper nodded. _"It's true! The threehorn Cera and the healers are gathering up the medicine plants as we speak."_

Roary's eyes grow wide. _"Plants! I have to eat...plants!"_

Chomper stroked the side of his son's head and smiled down at him. _"It won't be so bad. They'll mix it with long neck meat so that you can swallow it."_

By this time, V'Leck had returned with a leaf tray full of water from the nearby pond. Chomper tilted Roary's head up so that he can drink. _"Here you go, son! Slowly! Slowly, dear!"_ V'Leck said as she put the tray to his mouth. Roary took a sip, then gagged. Chomper was quick to turn his head sideways to keep him from choking.

"_Roary! I said 'slowly'!"_

"_Sorry, mom!"_ Roary said when he stopped coughing. His mother brought the tray to his mouth again. He laid a hand on it as he slowly drank. He sighed contently as he laid his head back down in his father's lap. _"Thanks! I needed that!"_

"_Anytime, son!"_ his mother lovingly said.

Roary laid a hand on his mother's shoulder and smiled up to him. _"I'm so glad that we're together again as a family... Just like old times..."_ Roary laughed hoarsely, then got another fit of coughing. He had to turn his head to spit up the mix of blood and mucus that had foamed into his mouth. Both V'Leck and Chomper looked very worried.

"_How soon will they be ready to administer the antidote?"_ V'Leck asked. 

"_Very soon, I hope!"_ was all Chomper could say as an answer. He looked over and saw that more sharptooth healers were bringing in other armfuls of the medicine plant. Then he heard sharptooth volunteers running past them towards the huge long neck carcass in the distance. They were starting to gather up the meat to prepare the dosages.


	11. Chapter 10 Reconciliation

**CHAPTER 10**

**ROARY'S DECISION AND A RECONCILIATION**

Roary's voice brought Chomper's attention back down to his son. _"Mom? I have an annoucement to make..."_ He hesitated a bit before he continued. _"I want dad... to teach me the green eater language... to teach me their ways..."_

V'Leck was in total shock. _"Roary! What are you saying! Has the sickness affected your head as well!"_

"_No, V'Leck!"_ Chomper said. _"I think Roary's still perfectly sa__ne__._" Chomper smiled. _"I'd be happy to teach him."_

V'Leck stared at them in utter disbelief. _"Have you two gone mad! Listen to yourselves! You're talking nonsense! They are not our kind! There is NOTHING we could possibly learn from them!" _Then she stormed off.

"_No, V'Leck! HONEY!"_ Chomper called out to her.

"_Dad..." _Roary grabbed his father's forearm weakly.

"_I'll go talk to her. NURSE!"_ Chomper said as he motioned the nearest female sharptooth caretaker over. He then got up and ran over after his ex mate after the nurse took over.

A short time later, he and V'Leck were sitting down by the pond. She was munching on a generous portion of long neck meat she had Chomper go collect for him. He was munching on a couple of rather large fish he had caught from the pond. They were both watching the volunteers racing back and forth carrying the meat that was needed for the medicine plant doses. Some of the volunteers snuck in a bite or two of the succulent meat as they hurriedly brought it back to the valley entrance. Chomper noticed that Chief Berserker had assigned guards all around the stockpiles of meat and medicine plants. He thought that was a good thing. The healers wouldn't want anybody trying to steal any of the plants or meat before the necessary doses were ready.

They quietly sat there for a time, munching on their meals. Then V'leck broke the silence.

"_Want some? It's really good."_ she said as she handed him the huge slab of long neck meat.

After eyeing it for a moment, he smiled and said. _"No, thanks. These fish will do fine."_

"_You don't know what you're missin'."_ she said in between her chewing.

If the circumstances were different, he would've happily taken the entire meat slab, if she offered it to him. But while Lesik and the other green eaters were here, he couldn't bring himself to bite into a piece of red meat. The very thought of it turned his stomach, for some reason. He felt it was not only because it was like he was actually eating a piece of his green eater friends' flesh, but also because of the smell of death and disease all around him. A meal of fish was about all he could keep down.

"_How are they?"_ she then asked Chomper about the fish.

"_Very good!" _he said in between his own chewing. _"Juicy sweet, actually."_ He smiled as he swallowed.

After a few moments, Chomper decided to brooch the subject. _"V'Leck, why did we have to separate?"_

"_You KNOW why!"_ V'Leck finally said after she swallowed another bite of her long neck meat.

"_No! That's not what I meant..."_

"_Then what did you mean!"_

"_I meant... What would've happened, if you died? What would've happened to Roary?"_

"_I can take care of myself!... and Roary! I did for all these seasons, when you weren't around."_

"_But you know how overprotective of their families some of these male sharptooth are! They wouldn't hesitate to kill any sharptooth they felt was a threat to the safety of their family... Even if that 'threat' was just a sharptooth female and her young son."_

"_Roary's old and big enough to fend for himself..."_

"_But still young and small enough to have his neck snapped in two by a much larger sharptooth male! I would'n't be so worried about you two if your parents were still alive! Especially your father. He was big enough to take on ANYBODY. But they're no longer alive! Who would've been there to protect you and Roary!"_

V'Leck didn't answer. She felt the question was rhetorical.

He then took her right hand in his. _"Honey, I still care very deeply for both of you. I would die if anything were to happen to either of you. My whole world would crumble, if I didn't have the both of you as a part of my life."_

"_You're just saying that..."_

"_No! I really mean it!" _He then gave both her hand a light squeeze. _"I know we've had our differences of opinions-especially about the green eaters-but we could've stayed together for Roary's sake! The boy needed his father most of all!"_

V'Leck sighed and looked down at the grassy ground. _"It's just that... I felt I had to go, and take Roary with me. I just couldn't b__e__a__r__ to hear any more of your... INSANE TALK__…__ about the green eaters and their ways... and I didn't want you filling Roary's head with those ridiculous notions..."_

"_It's not 'insane talk', V'Leck! And it's not 'ridiculous', either! Besides, Roary now says he wants to learn! Expand his horizons! He has the right to make his own decision in this matter! I have the right to teach him what he wants to learn!"_

"_But it goes against everything that was taught to us by our ancestors for generations! What you and Roary are... plotting... to do goes against tradition! You would be outcast... Roary would be outcast... 'I' would be outcast! I mean... WHAT COULD WE POSSIBLY LEARN FROM THESE... 'SAP SUCKERS'! THEY ARE NOTHING LIKE US!"_

"_That's not true..."_

"_YES, IT IS! Don't get me wrong! I am grateful that they are here helping us, here and now, in this time of great need. But believe me when I say that once this crisis is over, they will leave here and forget about us... and about YOU. It's best that you forget about them, too, once they're gone!"_

"_V'Leck..."_

"_This conversation is over, Teekul!"_

She got up and stormed off.

Chomper got up immediately and ran after her.

"_V'Leck... V'LECK! Honey! WAIT!" _Chomper shouted as he grabbed her.

"_Don't you call ME 'honey'!" _she growled.

"_V'Leck, LISTEN TO ME!"_ He grabbed her shoulders.

He pointed off in the distance. _"Look at the threehorn Cera over there!"_

V'Leck hesitated.

"_I'm serious! LOOK AT HER!" _

V'Leck sighed heavily as she looked off to where Chomper was pointing. She saw Cera working with the sharptooth healers in preparing the medicine plant antidotes.

"_Before she came here, she thought exactly the same way about us as you think about them. She thought that we were nothing but cruel, heartless assassins who didn't have feelings, who didn't have any strong family ties whatsoever. This was what her father taught her, and this was what her grandfather probably taught her. What countless generations of threehorns had taught their descendants! But now, she's got a completely different attitude about us!"_

"_How do you know?"_

Chomper smiled and shrugged._ "She told me!"_

"_Oh! She did, did she?"_

Chomper nodded and took hold of her shoulders again._ "Look! During my brief time with them as a youngling, I discovered that they are exactly like us. They care for their young ones and their elders, like we do. They honour and mourn their dead, like we do. Look at the long neck Lesik over there!" _He pointed in the direction of the big long neck busy caring for a bunch of sick sharptooths. _"I'm sure that, when nobody was looking, he went over to the long neck carcass over there and... 'blessed' him in some way. Thanking him for sacrificing his life so that we'd all have a chance at life ourselves. By the Prime Egg, they even mate for life, like we do... well, MOST of us, anyway."_

V'Leck didn't like his last comment, but decided not to jibe him about it. Chomper let her dwell on this for a few moments before he continued. _"In a way, we're like... distant cousins!" _Chomper smiled. _"Only difference is: They eat the green stuff."_

"_And we eat them!"_

"_That aside, I'm sure that if you just give yourself a chance to get to know them, you'll see that I'm right."_

V'leck seemed pensive for a few moments. Then she nodded. _"Okay."_

Chomper beamed.

"_But I refuse to believe that they saved your life when you hatched out of your egg!"_

"_Fine by me."_

"_And if what you say is true, if we are destined to really become friends with these... 'sap suckers'...this will take a radical change of thinking in all of us, and such a change does not happen overnight."_

"_I realize that. Just like I realize not to expect 'you' to change 'your' way of thinking overnight, but if you can at least be more open to the possibility of becoming friends with them, and to the idea that we can someday live in harmony with them, that will make me VERY happy."_

After a few moments, V'Leck slowly smiled and nodded.

Chomper smiled back and placed his hand on her cheek. _"You're taking a step in the right direction, dear! I'm so proud of you!"_

V'Leck giggled. _"They say 'One sharptooth cannot summon the future'."_

"_Yes, but another wise old ancestor of ours also said: One sharptooth can make a difference."_

Then both of them smiled brightly, rubbed their muzzles together and brought their foreheads as one, as they have done so many times before as a sign of their love and affection. _"Come on, they need our help."_

They then took each other's hand and walked over towards the valley entrance, where a large crowd of healers and volunteers were busy preparing the medicine plant antidotes. The medicine plants kept pouring in, and the volunteers kept running back and forth from the long neck carcass carrying as much meat in their arms as they could.

A flapping noise from above them caused them to look up. Chomper saw that it was Petrie circling down towards them. He was carrying a large bunch of medicine plants in his claws.

"Chomper! CHOMPER!" he exclaimed as he landed. "Look! I brought WHOOOLE bunch of medicine plants!"

Chomper smiled. "That's great, Petrie! Just bring them over to the healers so that can keep making antidotes."

"Okie dokie!" Petrie said. He was just about to lift off the ground with his bushel when he caught himself. "Uhh... Is this your mate?" he asked, pointing.

Chomper laughed. "EX mate! This is V'Leck!" He then introduced her to Petrie. V'Leck made a small grumble in Petrie's direction.

"She said 'Hi'." Chomper smiled.

"Oh! Pleasure to meet you too, ma'am." Petrie bowed. Chomper translated his greeting to V'Leck, who simply nodded. Petrie then asked. "You really think all this effort will save all these sharptooth?"

Chomper nodded. "We're real positive about it. Cera's working her hind quarters off getting the antidotes ready, and..." Chomper stopped mid sentence when he felt something churning in his belly. A rumbling sound could be heard as he put a hand to his abdomen. "Uh oh..."

"_Teekul?"_ V'Leck asked in a worried tone.

"Chomper? Chomper, what wrong?" Petrie asked, equally worried.

"I'm..." He then put a hand to his mouth as he ran a few feet away then bent over as he heaved his stomach contents onto the grassy ground.

"_Oh, no! TEEKUL!" _V'Leck exclaimed.

Petrie gasped. "Oh, no! OH, NONONOOO! MEDIIIICS!"

Chomper had come down with "Bloody Tummy" himself.


	12. Chapter 11 Recovery

**CHAPTER 11**

**RECOVERY**

It took everyone the better part of the day to get the antidotes ready. They literally had to strip the entire long neck carcass down to the bone to get enough meat for all of the doses, and it took multiple runs from all of the volunteers to get enough medicine plants, as well.

Lesik, Alaina and Petrie took a break to go collect themselves in front of the long neck carcass one last time, as a final tribute to the great giant green eater. They stood in silence for awhile, gazing at the skeletal remains of the long neck. Finally, Lesik spoke.

"He sacrificed his life so thousands could live..."

Alaina nodded. "There is an old saying: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..."

Petrie nodded. "... Or the one..."

They spent the next few minutes comforting each other before they headed back to their assigned duties.

In the end, Petrie gathered up the most plants of all; mainly because he was a flyer, and he flew as fast as he could on each of his runs.

There was a sad indicent on one of his runs that deeply affected him. While he was collecting plants under the watchful eyes of his protection guards, he saw that two healer sharptooths had showed up at a nearby sharptooth dwelling. The female sharptooth living within came out to greet them. Though the sounds he heard emanating from them were mainly grunts, groans and soft roars to his earholes, he knew that they were talking in the sharptooth language.

He jumped slightly when the female suddenly let out a huge roar, then fell to her knees on the ground, her hands balled into fists. He saw large tears running down her facial features. Then, two young ones came out from the cave dwelling, wondering what was wrong with their mother. She took them into her arms, then let out a huge roar again.

Petrie didn't need any translation to know that what was said was something like: _"Mommy? MOMMY! What's wrong! Why are you crying?" "It's your father! He's DEEEEAD!"_

The two young sharptooth let out their own sorrowful roars in mourning for their now deceased father, another victim of the "Bloody Tummy" disease. Petrie could only look on in sorrow at the scene. He would love to be able to do more for them. To comfort them, give them hope, somehow. But he knew there was nothing he could do. He felt a clawed hand on his shoulder, he looked back to see one of his protection guards looking down at him. He made a low rumbling sound at him. Though he couldn't understand him, he knew he must've said something like _"Do not concern yourself with them. They will be looked after. Continue collecting the plants." _Petrie just shut his eyes and nodded. He had time to look back one last time to see the two male sharptooth healers comforting the female sharptooth and her two younglings. One even hugged the largest male youngling as he wept openly, calling for his father.

By the time evening rolled around, all of the doses were ready. Chief Berserker stood at the top of the hill at the valley entrance, let out a huge roar to bring eveybody to silence, then made the annoucement that the antidote can now be ministered. The entire valley was literally echoing with sharptooth cheers and roars of joy. This went on for quite some time before Chief Berserker put up his hands and let out a few more huge roars that translated to _"SILEEEEEENCE! HEAR MEEEEEEE!"_ in the green eater language. He then announced that the healers will begin distributing the medicine to the sick, but that if there were any relatives or friends of the sick here present, they must form an orderly line at the base of the entrance so the doses can be handed to them by the volunteers. He did not have time to even finish his sentence that many sharptooth were already storming the area trying to get their hands on the medicine. Chief Berserker threw up his hands in exasperation, looked at the sky as if to say _"I should've KNOWN they were gonna do that ANYWAY, no matter WHAT I said!"_ It was a good thing that he assigned enough guards to keep the mob at bay. All throughout the crowd, there were cries and pleas from many sharptooth calling for the doses. They were pleading for the volunteers and healers to give them the medicine to save their mates/sons/daughters/parents. There were a few minor skirmishes with the guards, and a few sharptooth got trampled in the initial stampede, but they were none the worse for wear. One male sharptooth twisted his knee out of place, and had to receive a different kind of ministering that the healers have been giving over the past two weeks or so.

V'Leck waited her turn in the "orderly" line, like dozens of other sharptooth who knew it was pointless to be part of the initial desperate stampede. They knew it wasn't gonna get them the medicine any quicker. She got two doses, one for Chomper and one for Roary.

While Chomper took his own medicine without hesitation, things were a little bit harder for Roary. He took one bite of the medicine plant/meat antidote, cried out _"Oh! That's DISGUSTING!" _as he stuck out his tongue.

"_I know it doesn't taste good, Roary" _his mother had told him. _"But you must take it, if you are to live."_

Roary nodded, then closed his eyes as he took the dose his ministered to him. _"Now, you have to chew on it a few times before you swallow it."_ she told him.

He made a face and squinted as he did as his mother said. Then he swallowed with an audible gulping sound. _"OOH! That was horrible!" _Some healers had brought over 2 leaf trays filled with water that Chomper and Roary used to wash the antidotes down with.

"_What was it that threehorn said earlier about this cure?"_

Chomper shrugged. _"That we really won't know until tomorrow if the medicine will actually work."_

"_Well, I know I feel better already." _Roary said. If anything, both he and Chomper felt that the antidote settled their respective stomachs.

Cera came by to inspect the two patients."How's everything here?"

"Just fine." Chomper smiled and said.

"Great!" Cera said as she gave a happy nod before moving on to the next set of patients.

"_I'm beginning to like her. She seems real nice... for a threehorn."_

Chomper smiled and gave V'Leck a light squeeze on her shoulder.

"_You two should get some rest. I'll see if I can go lend a claw to all of those poor volunteers."_

"_Yes, dear!" _Chomper said.

"_Yes, mother." _Roary said.

She smiled back at them as she walked off.

In the end, the antidote DID work. All of the sick sharptooth reported that their symptoms were alleviating somewhat. Cera ordered additional doses to everyone who still did not quite feel well. The sharptooth healers asked her if it really was necessary. Cera said that, sometimes, a green eater had to take 2 or 3 doses, and in the most extreme cases, 4 doses, before being fully cured of the sickness.

That meant every volunteer had to strike out in search of more medicine plants, and a hunting party had to be sent out to bring in another long neck kill to provide the meat. The story the hunters told was that the long neck voluntarily gave up his life for the cause. Matter of fact, he had heard about the disease that was afflicting the sharptooth; and was able to grasp a few words of the sharptooth language to understand what they needed his flesh for. The hunters said the long neck put his head down for the killer blow.

Among the many groans of protest, the sick sharptooth took their addtitional doses.

After the sick sharptooth started recovering, Cera ordered all those who were still healthy to take one dose as a precaution to avoid the disease from resurfacing. This meant that more hunting parties had to be sent out, and yet more medicine plants had to be brought in.

Chomper needed two doses of the antidote to fully recover, while Roary needed three. The still healthy, like V'Leck, only their one precautionary dose.

All of the green eaters took their one dose of the medicine plant(without the meat, of course.)

Then Cera ordered the sharptooth healers to canvas all over the sharptooth lands to make sure everyone was inoculated, and to check to see if there were any sick sharptooth who weren't able to make their way down to the valley. They found several dead corpses that were left rotting in their cave dwellings, left there by their families out of fear of catching the sickness that killed them, should they try to remove the body.

In the end, the green eaters spent nearly a month and a half in the sharptooth lands helping out in the inoculation and education program. Cera gave seminars in how to recognize the symptoms of the "Bloody Tummy" disease, and what to do, should someone get sick from it. Many of the local healers, and members of the general population, attended her lectures.

Meanwhile, Chomper had reconciled with V'Leck, and they became mates again. Despite her still looking down upon it, Chomper began to teach his son Roary the green eater language, as well as their way of life and beliefs. Roary always listened eagerly every time his father gave his lessons, and Roary always had lots of questions to ask.

After Chomper moved back in with V'Leck and Roary, he offered his old cave dwelling to Cera as a temporary residence while she stayed in the sharptooth country. She graciously took up the offer. While she felt grateful at the gesture, she also felt kind of sad. She had started feeling something akin to more than friendship towards Chomper. She never thought she would ever feel this way towards a sharptooth. Her heart was joyous at the notion that Chomper had reunited with his family, yet hurt at the same time at the notion that they could never be more than friends. Then she thought about Wendyk back home in The Great Valley, at how he said he would wait for her when she got back. She began thinking that becoming mates with a threehorn like him'd might not be such a bad idea after all.


	13. Chapter 12 Awards Ceremony

**CHAPTER 12**

**AWARDS CEREMONY**

On the day before the green eaters were scheduled to leave to return home, Chief Berserker called a special meeting of The Grand Sharptooth Council, and asked that the green eaters attend. He also sent word for Chomper and his family to attend as well, with the message that he had a _"little surprise"_ in store for him. Chomper was anxious to hear all about it.

At around midday, everyone was gathered at the meeting place. A large sharptooth crowd had also gathered. Chomper finally explained to the green eaters that the necklace Chief Berserker was wearing was what was called "the bones of our ancestors", and that it was very sacred. Same as the headdress he wore and the staff that he carried, both symbols of his position as Council Leader, and he alone was allowed the privilege of walking around as such. He climbed up onto a large naturally shaped stone alter known as the "speech rock". After calling everybody to order, he began to speak.

"_My friends and Sharptooth Nation residents, it is with great joy that I officially announce that the.__.. 'Bloody Tummy' crisis is OVER__!"_

This brought about a large number of cheers and roars. All of the green eaters were sitting with Chomper and his family, and were listening intently as Chomper translated the sharptooth Council Leader's speech.

"_It has been a time of great hardship and sacrifice for us all! Many have lost so much in this crisis. Many sharptooth males, females, and younglings have died! But through perseverance, and against incredible odds, we have managed to avert this crisis... AND SURVIVE!"_

More cheers, roars and applause followed.

"_But we couldn't have done what we did without the help of a brave group of green eaters..." _he said as he gestured towards the green eaters sitting as a group towards his left. _"who have come a long way from home to answer our call for aid. We shall be eternally grateful to them, and we owe them our very lives!"_

More cheers and roars were heard.

"_It was thanks to their knowledge of the cure to this sickness that threatened our very existence that we were able to overcome this giant obstacle placed before us..." _Amidst a small smattering of applause, he continued. _"It is thanks to them that our kind __still has it__s place on this... GREEN EARTH!"_

Many more cheers and roars were heard.

"_Let it be known for generations to come what transpired here! Let it be known for generations to come of the... unusual alliance that was formed here between our kind and the green eaters. The future is always uncertain; but one thing that is certain is the present. And as long as I live and breathe, I will make certain the green eaters' contribution to the cause against which our very survival was at stake WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!"_

The crowd erupted into cheers and roars for what seemed like the longest time. When Chief Berserker felt it had gone on long enough, he put his hands up to silence the crowd.

"_I now surrender the speech rock to our Master Healer who will give us his final tally..."_

Once the Master Healer took his place on the rock, he gave a long winded speech about the disease and the consequences of it. Turns out, only about one quarter of the sharptooth population had died from the disease. But considering that there were several thousands of residents in the sharptooth provinces, this was still a large number. The Master Healer also said a little over one half of the population had become ill. Immunization and education efforts are still ongoing in the Sharptooth Nation's outskirts, and healers and volunteers are still keeping a watchful eye for any new and recurring cases of the disease. Courteous applause rang out as he finished his speech and left the rock alter.

Chief Berserker climbed back onto the rock briefly to announce that he was now surrendering the rock over to his senior lieutenant & Council Overseer.

When the medium sized sharptooth took the stand, he announced with great regret that two of the twelve members of the Council had died from the disease, and that replacements had to be named. By tradition, whoever was first in line to replace a deceased councillor automatically received the title.

One of the councillors that died was Juglur Schrack, who happened to also be the Overseer of Chomper's home province; and the green eaters learned that Chomper himself was his Junior Adjutant. It was then that they all understood that Chomper wasn't lying when he said he was a sharptooth of some importance among his kind. But the Senior Adjutant was named as the successor to Councilor Schrack. Chomper, who was second in line, was now first in line to replace him, should he meet an unfortunate demise.

After those formalities were done with, Chief Berserker retook the stand.

"_And now, I will ask that the brave green eaters assembled here today step forward..."_ he said as he motioned them over.

When they were standing at the base of the speech rock, Chief Berserker said in a voice loud enough for all to hear. _"My friends, in honour of your valiant efforts over these past few weeks, please accept this token of our appreciation..."_ He indicated four female sharptooth approaching with each a bone necklace in their hands. _"These necklaces were made from the finest of our ancestors' bones, and I bestow them onto you..."_ Chomper suggested that they accept the gift, as it was the greatest honour that can be given to anyone, in the sharptooth culture.

They all allowed the sharptooth females to place the necklaces around their necks. Lesik, of course, had to bend his huge neck down almost to the ground so the sharptooth female can reach him.

After which, Chief Berserker smiled and started to applaud. The assembled crowd followed suit. The applause grew into cheers and roars as literally all of the assembled sharptooth stood up and gave a standing ovation that lasted for several minutes. At one point, just as it seemed to die down, it escalated again with even more fervour.

When the cheers and applause finally DID die down, Chief Berserker motioned to Lesik to come on to the speech rock to say a few words.

More applause rang out as Lesik came to take his place. He could only place his two front feet on the speech rock, as it was too small for him to stand on it completely.

"My friends and Sharptooth Nation residents, on behalf of all of us green eaters assembled here today, and from the bottom of our hearts, I thank you all for this great honour you have bestowed upon us today..."

After hearing Chomper's translation, the assembled sharptooth applauded again.

"The necklaces you have given us are indeed great gifts, and we..." Lesik was interrupted by some impromptu applauds. "... and we shall wear them with pride as a reminder of what we've accomplished here over these past few weeks."

More applause rang out.

"As Head Councilor of The Council of The Great Valley of Peace, I say to you that this... unique alliance between our great nations SHALL be remembered by my kind for generations!"

More cheers and applause ensued.

"As Chief Berserker said earlier: The future is uncertain. But for the present, I swear to you that, as I live and breathe, and until my last dying breath, this great deed of conquest over insurmountable odds SHALL NOT be forgotten by my kind!"

The assembled sharptooth all stood up and gave Lesik a standing ovation.

Then Chief Berzerker resumed his place once more on the speech rock.

"_Thank you for those kind words, Councilor Lesik. You may return to your places on the grass. Teekul, please remain."_

After they all bowed respectfully to him, all of the green eaters went to sit back down where they belonged, only Chomper remained in front of the altar.

"_Teekul Sharpe, also known as 'Chomper'..."_ this brought a little smattering of laughter from some of those assembled. _"I'm sure you are anxious to know what this 'little surprise' I have in store for you is, don't you?"_

After a moment, Chomper said in a soft voice. _"Yes, my leader!"_

"_Well, me, my lieutenants, and the members of the Council have decided that because of your affiliation and friendship to these brave green eaters, plus the fact that you know their language, you are to be given a promotion..."_

Chomper was surprised! A lot of the gathered sharptooth mumbled in surprise as well. He wandered how much higher in rank he can go. He was already Senior Adjutant and Assistant Overseer of his province, after the old Senior Adjutant was named to the Council. What more could they offer him? A place on the Council itself? But that would make it a total of thirteen members! For generations, there had never been more than twelve members on The Grand Sharptooth Council! He was anxious to hear about this promotion they're offering him. All of the green eaters looked at each other wondering what special honour Chomper's leader is going to give him.

Chief Berserker put his arms up to demand silence._ "We have decided to create a new position within our government._" A brief episode on mumblings ensued from some of those gathered._ "We have named it: Foreign Ambassador to the Green Eaters!" _

Cries of surprise erupted from the crowd. Chomper smiled up to his leader. His leader smiled back and nodded.

Once the crowd has become silent again, Chief Berserker continued. _"Of course, this means that you must take up residence in or near the green eater lands... whatever they feel is most convenient for them..."_

Lesik looked at his companions in a mixture of surprise and joy. The other green eaters smiled at the notion that Chomper would be coming to live among them. That they would no longer be separated by great distances through dangerous sharptooth country.

"_Although this is a unique opportunity, Teekul, you can also refuse, if you feel you cannot take on the responsibilities..."_

Chomper looked over to where his mate and son were sitting, which was right next to the green eaters.

"_What about my family?" _he asked.

"_They would be going with you, of course..." _Chief Berserker smiled.

Chomper beamed for a moment, then said. _"Before I decide, may I go talk to them about it?"_

"_Of course..." _Chief Berserker said as he motioned for him to go talk to V'Leck and Roary.

He bowed slightly, then ran over to them. They stood up as he neared them. He placed his left hand on V'Leck's shoulder, and his right hand on Roary's.

"_Guys, we have a unique opportunity here, and I really don't think we should pass it up!"_ He said with excitement as he looked from one to the other.

"_Well..." _V'Leck said after a moment, then looked coyly at Chomper. _"I've never been an Amdassador's mate before... This could be fun."_

"_OOH! I love it when you talk like that..." _Chomper breathed. Then he turned his attention to his son. _"What say you, Roary?"_

"_Well, dad! Considering that I'll have a chance to make friends with a lot of green eaters, and learn all there is to know about them... I say: TAKE THE JOB!"_

Chomper gave a roar of joy, hugged his son, rubbed muzzles with and kissed his mate before he ran back to face his Leader. The sharptooth that were standing next to them who heard the conversation were applauding, and already exchanging clawshakes and hugs with V'Leck. Roary was getting hearty pats on the back from all of the male sharptooth around him.

He bowed before Chief Berserker again and said. _"My leader, I accept your offer!"_

He beamed and raised his voice so that all can hear. _"Well then... Let it be known that, from this day forth, Teekul 'Chomper' Sharpe is officially our first ever... Foreign Amdassador to The Green Eater Countries!"_

Hearty cheers and roars went up throughout the crowd. The green eaters were doing their own brand of cheering, and went over to congratulate V'Leck and Roary for the great honour bestowed upon them. Meanwhile, Chief Berserker came down off of the speech rock and produced a fine staff made from a large piece of long neck bone from behind it. It was beautifully polished, and bore a small sharptooth's head on the top of it that was carved from the very same bone matter. _It must be to identify me as the Foreign Ambassador,_ he thought. Teek beamed as he looked up at his leader and shook claws with him. Chief Berserker smiled down proudly at him.

After a few minutes, Chief Berkerker raised his hands again, calling for silence. _"In conclusion, and before our dear green eater friends' departure, as well as that of our newly appointed Ambassador and his family, a grand celebration is planned in their honour with great feasting, singing and dancing. I decree that it commence... IMMEDIATELY!"_

More roars and cheers erupted from the crowd.

Chief Berzerker raised his hands one last time, and roared in his loudest voice. _"LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!"_

One final cheer from the crowd adjourned the special Sharptooth Council meeting.


	14. Chapter 13 Celebration And Voyage Home

**CHAPTER 13**

**CELEBRATION AND VOYAGE HOME**

It was indeed a grand celebration. There was lots of singing and dancing that went on throughout the night. Huge stockpiles of meat were brought out for the multitude of sharptooth gathered. Servants brought large leaf trays filled with many berries, nuts, grasses, flowers... and an abundance of tree stars, surprisingly enough, for the green eaters; and they ate beyond their fill.

Chomper allowed himself a little bit of red meat, on this occasion, but he mostly ate fresh fish. Roary tried some of the fish for the first time, and thought it was quite good. V'Leck stuck to her rather generous servings of red long neck meat.

The sharptooth taught some of their traditional songs to the green eaters. In exchange, the green eaters tought the traditional songs from their childhood. Teek offered his own rough translations. The sharptooth thought some of the songs were funny, and everybody laughed heartily.

There was plenty of dancing as well to the melody of some sharptooth musicians who made remarkable sounds with a mixture of sharptooth and green eater bones. Some were hollowed out to make haunting melodies once blowed into, or rapped against each to produce strange rhythmic sounds. Some rhythmic stomping made the ambience complete.

The green eaters danced with several sharptooth all night long. The bone necklaces they were wearing made clanking noises as they moved all up and down their necks. Roary strutted his stuff with all of the green eaters. The green eaters demonstrated their traditional dances. The sharptooth showed them theirs. Chomper and V'Leck did one such dance that reminded Alaina of a duckbilled swimmer stamping out and brushing off ticklish ants all over one's body. They even allowed themselves to do a rather risque dance normally done by a young male and female sharptooth as a courtship ritual. Chomper boasted that that was how he won V'Leck's heart. V'Leck said he was right, as that was what prompted her to take him as a mate a short time later. The green eaters' thought the courtship dance demonstration was quite provocative.

Cera even danced with Chomper for a spell! Though she didn't dare do with him any of the traditional threehorn courtship dances she had seen done before. She only allowed herself to an exagerated rhythmic bobbing of her head, which was usually a precursor to those dances.

The green eaters noticed that Chief Berserker himself partook in the dancing with several of the female servants. As far as they knew, he was not mated to any female sharptooth; and as Sharptooth Council Leader, he must have plenty of eager females to pick from to be his potential mate._ It wouldn't surprise me if he chose more than one female,_ all of the green eaters thought.

Eventually, Lesik convinced his companions to retire for the night, as he wanted to get an early start tomorrow. They all bade farewell to all of the sharptooth surrounding them, and thanked them individually for the wonderful feasting and celebrating. A lot of the sharptooth waved goodbye to them in an enthusiastic fashion. The party continued for a short time after; but eventually, all of the partygoers disbanded to retire to their dwellings for the rest of the night. _I think a lot of them will be sleeping in tomorrow_, Chomper thought to himself.

The next day, the bright circle had already risen when the green eaters gathered to leave for home.

Petrie was walking around with his head in his hand.

"You okay, Petrie?" Alaina asked.

"Just got berry hangover..." Petrie said in a shaky voice.

"AWWW... Poor Petrie!" Alaina said as she stroked one of his wings.

"NOT SO LOUD, pleeease!"

Alaina placed a hand over her mouth as she giggled.

"I've been thinking." Lesik began. "When we get home, I plan to make a change in the way the Council does things."

"What do you mean?" Cera asked.

"I mean: Why should we have to have a unanimous agreement from all of the Council members before something gets done, when a simple majority would be enough? If your father had stuck fast to his opposition in us coming here, we NEVER would've been able to help save Chomper's kind."

After a few moments, Cera nodded. "Sounds like it might work."

Lesik chuckled.

"What?" Cera asked the big long neck.

"You've changed, Cera. Just a few days ago, you would've said that the way the Council does things works for everybody in The Great Valley; and that making any kind of change to the way it works would be foolish..."

Cera shrugged. "Maybe this whole 'Bloody Tummy' crisis has made me realize a few things..."

It was here that Chomper and his family finally appeared. "Sorry we're late. But it took a while to get Roary out of bed this morning." Teek said as he patted his son on the shoulder. Roary yawned as he staggered around seemingly in a daze.

Chief Berserker and the twelve Councilors stopped by to see them all off. He even assigned some guards to protect them while they travelled throughout the sharptooth provinces. After saying their final goodbyes to Chief Berserker and the Councilors, they set off.

They reached the border of the Sharptooth Countries by evening. After saying that they could go no further, the guards said their final goodbyes to the green eaters, Chomper and his family before they turned around and headed back home. From there, they were on their own. They stopped to rest for the night a short time after.

It took them three full days to finally reach the Green Eater Countries, and they reached the ravine leading to The Great Valley entrance by mid morning. It took them a bit longer this time, as Chomper was not pushing them hard, and they felt there was no great rush to get back home. Although they set their own pace, they were really glad to reach their final destination.

Cera sighed happily. "Home sweet home!"

"There no place like it!" Petrie said with a smile.

"Yup, yup, YUP!" Alaina allowed herself to say with her own grin.

"We're almost there!" Lesik announced as he caught sight of the valley entrance and the two threehorn guards at the vigil.


	15. Chapter 14 Terrible News And Funeral

**CHAPTER 14**

**TERRIBLE NEWS AND A FUNERAL**

Wendyk and Celik were the two threehorn guards on duty that morning. They were lying down, pawing on the rocky ground, like they always did, whenever it was their turn at the post. Celik sighed in boredom as he lazily looked around.

Then his eyes caught sight of something off in the distance. They grew wide as he saw what was coming. He tapped his fellow guard on the shoulder. "Wendyk! LOOK!" he said to him as he pointed.

Wendyk's eyes also went wide. He immediately stood up and screamed. "They're back! THEY'RE BACK!"

"Is it really them?"

"Of course it's them, you idiot!" he said as he smacked the back of Celik's head.

"Ow!"

Celik then noticed that the green eaters were not alone. "By the Primal Egg! Is that...? It IS! IT'S CHOMPER! And he's got two other sharptooth with him!

"Go tell the others!" Wendyk ordered.

"YES, SIR!" Celik happily shouted as he rushed off.

As they approached, Wendyk bellowed a greeting. "Welcome home, Councilor!"

"It's good to be home..."

"Alaina, Petrie... Cera!"

"Hi, Wendyk!" Cera said in a coy melodic tone.

"I... I thought about you all the time, you know."

"I know." Cera said, then gave him a loving look that stunned him into silence.

Lesik clearing his throat brought him out of his reverie. "Wendyk? You remember Chomper, don't you?"

"Hello again, Wendyk." Chomper said with a smile.

Lesik continued... "And this is his mate, V'Leck.."

Wendyk nodded. "Ma'am."

"... and his son Roary..."

Both nodded and growled in his direction. "They both said: 'Hello. It's a real pleasure to meet you.'" Chomper translated with a smile.

"Likewise, I'm sure."

Then he eyed what was around their necks. "What's with the necklaces?"

Lesik smiled. "They're gifts from the Head Councilor of the sharptooth."

"Nice." Wendyk commented with a note of sarcasm.

"... and Chomper has been named official Foreign Ambassador to The Great Valley of Peace! That's why he's carrying this staff made of long neck bone."

Wendyk nodded. "Great!" Then he turned his attention to Cera. "Uhh... Look, I... uhh..."

The sound of trotting coming from behind interrupted him. Celik had returned with three other threehorn guards, including Veek.

He came up to Lesik, and said in a panting voice. "We came as soon as we heard. We are to escort you to the Council meeting place right away..." He gave himself a few moments to catch his breath. "Something terrible's happened..."

"I was just getting to that, Veek." Wendyk interrupted.

"What?" Lesik asked.

Wendyk approached Cera. "Cera, I have terrible news..." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Councilor Topsy... your father... is dead..."

Cera's eyes grew wide...

"... He died two days ago... Calling your name, apparently..."

Cera remained speechless for a few moments, then blurted out. "What! Wendyk, is this a joke! If it is, it's not funny!"

Wendyk shook his head. "I wish it were..." He came closer to Cera's face. "Your father really IS dead."

Cera turned towards Veek, who sadly nodded. All of the other threehorns also looked sad. Everyone was speechless. Too stunned to say anything. Lesik simply closed his eyes and lowered his head.

Cera turned away from everybody. After a few moments, her lips began to quiver. Her breathing became erratic. Wendyk quickly moved in to comfort her. She broke down and cried as soon as he embraced her. "DADDYYYYY!" she cried out as everybody gathered around her... even V'Leck and Roary, to give her comfort.

Although Councilor Topsy died in his sleep in his cave dwelling, he was moved over to the edge of the cliff where he was supposed to be pushed off after the memorial ceremony. Everyone vowed that they would allow his body to decompose all the way down to the bone, if necessary, until Cera's return so that she can say farewell to him one last time. Either that, or push him off once word was received of her death.

Even though they held off on the memorial ceremony, several Great Valley residents came by his corpse to mourn him already.

It was mid afternoon by the time Councilor Topsy's funeral took place. Word spread fast of the expedition party's return, and practically all off the Great Valley residents came to the Council meeting place to greet the now returned heroes. Though many were glad to see them back safe and sound, the mood was less than festive; considering Councilor Topsy's recent passing.

At the appointed hour, all of the remaining nine Councilors, as well as virutally all of the citizens of The Great Valley, were gathered. In turn, several of Councilor Topsy's closest friends came forward to say a few words about him. When they were finished, they offered their condolences to Cera, who gratiously accepted them.

Chomper was amazed at how similar their ritual was to those of the sharptooth. When the "Bloody Tummy"crisis was over, a grand ceremony was organized a week or so after in the valley of the sick, right at the cliff where all of the many thousands of sharptooth were unceremoniously dumped. The surviving relatives of all of the dead sharptooth were invited, as well as he, his family, the green eaters and all of the surviving Councilors. Everybody who was supposed to be there showed up. The dead sharptooth names were not mentioned, for such a thing would've taken practically all day to go through! But each next of kin of the deceased threw in a bouquet of what was known as "stinky flowers" over the cliff. This was then followed by a giant wake where everyone was allowed to mourn one final time.

Because of the dire circumstances, this grand ceremony had to be performed. Normally, when only one or two sharptooth die, his kind usually hold a ceremony much like this. In due time, he should tell them all about it. But for now, he simply watched and listened to the proceedings.

Then it was the surviving Councilors' turn to come forward to say their own words about their colleague... and friend... Lesik was the last of them to come forward to offer his own words. He didn't take any longer than necessary. By the time he was through, and said his final goodbye, tears were rolling down his facial features. Everyone applauded his valiant effort.

Then, when he regained his composure, he extended the courtesy of inviting Chomper to come forward to say his own words about Cera's father. Chomper was surprised at this. After receiving the nod from Lesik, he took his place in front of Councilor Topsy's corpse, turned to face the crowd, and spoke.

"Well... I can't say that I knew Councilor Topsy all that well personally, but I knew his daughter... KNOW his daughter." Chomper corrected himself as he glanced over at Cera sitting to his right with Wendyk beside her. "But after spending as much time as I have with Cera, seeing the way she acted... what she did, and all. I came to the conclusion that he must've been a proud and wonderful threehorn..." he glanced back at Cera. "...who raised an equally proud and wonderful daughter..." Cera smiled at him. Chomper smiled back briefly before concluding. "I guess that's all I can say about it. Thank you." He received a few polite applause as he left.

Lesik then came forward to call an end to the ceremony, and that everyone should leave to allow Cera to say her final farewells to her father. Everyone complied. Only Cera, Wendyk and the two threehorns assigned to push her father's body off of the cliff once all was done remained.

Cera came forward and just sat there in front of her father's corpse for a few minutes, not moving. Chomper surprised her by coming up beside her saying that his mate had an unusual request. She was wondering if she could cut off a piece of her father's corpse's flesh for their dinner tonight. Cera vehemently refused, at first, saying that she didn't want her father's body "tainted" by sharptooth clawmarks. But Chomper convinced her to allow his mate's request by saying that her father's spirit had moved on to The Great Beyond, and that his corpse was now just an empty shell; and that, in his mate's words, _All of that still fresh meat should not go to waste._ Finally, Cera nodded her consent.

While V'Leck set to work cutting away the flesh off of Councilor Topsy's underbelly, with the same precision as an expert surgeon, Chomper sat next to Cera with an arm around her shoulders. Wendyk looked uneasy about this, as he sat a little ways away from them. Chomper sensed his discomfort, and gave him a reassuring nod.

"The worst thing is: I never got a chance to say 'goodbye' to him." Cera sadly blurted out.

"But you DID say 'goodbye' to him, right before we all left for sharptooth country."

Cera sniffed. "I know... but..."

Chomper hugged her close, and surprised her by saying. "Would it comfort you to know that I never had a chance to say 'goodbye' to my own father before he died?"

Cera looked up at him. "You never told me that!"

Chomper nodded. "At the time, I was courting V'Leck; and she invited me to her cave dwelling one night for dinner to meet her parents. When a messenger came to give me word of the news, I ran home as quick as I could! I can still remember him lying there in his sleeping area. He looked so peaceful, although it was said he died quite suddenly of a heart attack." Chomper snorted. "I believe the last words I said to him was 'see you later' as I walked out of our cave, waiving to him, when I left for V'Leck's family cave that night."

This caused Cera to let loose a small laugh.

He then continued. "I can't remember if he waived back or not. But I cried for the longest time as I laid down right next to his body. I even fell asleep with my arm draped across him, facing him. It still amazes me to this day how peaceful he looked, despite the painful way he must've died. I was forced to get up the next morning when two sharptooth morticians came to take his body away to prepare him for his funeral."

"What about your mother, did you get a chance to say 'goodbye' to her before she died?" Cera asked.

Chomper nodded. "With her, it was different. She knew her time was near, and I never ventured too far from her, just in case. I remembered the day like it was yesterday! We were in our family cave. She was lying in her sleeping area. V'Leck was there, too." he said as he eyed his mate still working on cutting away the meat from Topsy's corpse.

She had specifically chosen the underbelly area, for it was out of the way of everyone's view. While her head stayed still just above Topsy's chest, Chomper knew that her razor sharp claws were feverishly working away at cutting away the flesh. Occasionally, he would see her head dissapear. He knew that she was sneaking in a bite or two.

"I had just announced to her that I had taken V'Leck as my life mate. Before she let out her last breath, she patted V'Leck's cheek, then placed her hand on my own, and told me that she was proud of me. She also said that I have chosen a fine female to start my own family with. I took her hand in mine... and just before her spirit moved in to The Great Beyond, I whispered to her 'Goodbye, mother. I'll miss you'. I must've sat there and sobbed for the better part of the afternoon before the healers finally came to take her body away. And a short time after that, V'Leck moved in. And the rest, as they say, is prehistory." Chomper smiled.

Cera was deeply touched. She didn't know that sharptooth also believed in The Great Beyond until she attended the grand funeral ceremony in The Valley of The Sick exactly two weeks after they had vanquished the "Bloody Tummy" epidemic. She had learned so much during their mission of mercy, and she knew that she would continue learning more, as long as she stayed friends with Chomper. _Just friends. The best of friends._ She thought.

"You were lucky to have known her the way you did." Cera said. "I hardly knew MY mother. She died a short time after I hatched out of my egg. I had four other sisters, so it wasn't easy for my father, being a single parent. Yet he still found time to look after all of us. But I seemed to be his favourite. I remember all of his stories of how a great female threehorn she was, and how she loved all of us." Cera shrugged. "But that's all I know about her. Just stories."

Chomper hugged her again. "I remember something Little Foot told me one time. Said he got it from his own mother. I believe it went something like: Your parents will always be there, even if you don't always see them." Chomper then shrugged. "Makes sense."

A roar got their attention. V'Leck was walking off towards the river with huge slabs of meat, obviously going to clean herself up. The roar would've translated to_ "Okay! I'm done." _in the green eater language.

Chomper patted Cera on the shoulder as a sign to say that she can now go forward and say her final goodbye to her father. Cera hesitated before she approached her father's corpse. Chomper and Wendyk came up behind her. Cera started sobbing as she placed her chin on his cold muzzle. "Goodbye, father!" she managed as she shed tears on his facial features.

Chomper gave one final comforting pat on his shoulder as Wendyk came to take her away for her own private wake. He comforted her as best he could, but she couldn't stop sobbing, it seems. Chomper closed his eyes, looked down and breathed a heavy sigh as he walked off to join his mate over by the river. The two threehorns, who were patiently waiting to perform their duty, moved in to finally push Councilor Topsy's body into the abyss.


	16. Conclusion

**CONCLUSION**

Chomper noticed Roary was playing with a couple of long neck yearlings off in the distance. He could hear laughter emanating from them as they were running all over the grassy plain. Chomper beamed. _Looks like Roary didn't waste time in making new friends._ He thought to himself. He roared _"Time to go, Roary! Your mother's waiting for us by the river for supper!"_ "_Okay, dad!"_ Roary roared back.

The big bright circle was just sinking below the horizon when they finally sat down by the riverbank for their meal. Although V'Leck took enough meat for the three of them off of Topsy's corpse, Chomper preferred to have another meal of fish. Roary had a mixture of both, while V'Leck polished off whatever threehorn meat was left. No green eaters came to join them. It was a private dinner between the three of them. It was the season where things were still quite warm, even thought the bright circle was low in the sky.

"_So where are we gonna sleep tonight?" _V'Leck asked as they were washing themselves in the river.

"_I think Little Foot's gonna arrange some type of accomodations for us."_

V'Leck let out a rumbling laughter.

"_What?" _Chomper asked.

"_I just find that nickname so funny... 'Little Foot'..."_ V'Leck laughed again. _"He doesn't have any 'little foots' anymore, does he?"_ V'Leck teased.

"_Only his closest friends call him that." _Chomper smiled.

"_Just like they call you 'Chomper'?" _V'Leck replied.

Chomper nodded. _"Yes."_

"_Well..." _V'leck began as she slided up to him. _"I think I'll call you 'Teekie'."_

"_Teekie?"_

V'Leck seductively nodded. _"And you can call me 'V'leckie'." _She said as she stroked his cheek and ran a clawed finger across his jaw.

"_Whaddya say... big boy?"_ V'Leck teased as he strided up close to him.

"_I could get used to it."_ Chomper said as he took her in his arms from the small of her back.

"_Okay! If you two are gonna get frisky..."_ Roary said with just a hint of annoyance.

After a moment, Chomper and V'leck laughed. Roary joined in.

They heard a bellow from upstream, and looked to see the large form of Little Foot come up to them.

"I believe I've found a place you can stay in!" Little Foot said with a smile.

A short time later, the four of them were gathered at a cave entrance just outside of The Great Valley. The bright circle was almost gone from the horizon. Chomper was inspecting the inside.

"I know it's not much, Chomper." Little Foot began. "But it's the best we could do, for the time being."

"It'll be fine!" Chomper said after he'd finished his inspection.

"It'll only be temporary, until we can find a larger cave."

Chomper chuckled. "No, Little Foot! It's fine. Really!"

Little Foot smiled. "I'm glad." After a moment, he asked. "Any idea what your responsibilities are?"

"Chief Berserker told me before we left that he'd be sending messengers from time to time with news about what's been going on in the Sharptooth Provinces, and that I'm to send reports of happenings out here back to him."

Little Foot nodded. "Well, get some rest, Chomper. We've got a big day tomorrow. We've gotta name Topsy's successor on the Council; and as Foreign Ambassador, you need to be present for the proceedings."

Chomper smiled. "I'll be there."

Little Foot felt a hand on his right forelimb. He looked down to see the smiling face of Roary looking up at him. "Tank you." he managed in the green eater language. Little Foot beamed as he bent down to stroke Roary's cheek with his muzzle. Roary closed his eyes and made the purring sound his kind always make when they're happy. It sounded almost exactly like the sound he remembered Chomper's mother made when she stroked his cheek back when he was a hatchling, and he and his green eater friends were stranded on that island.

Little Foot bade them good night as he left. After waiving to him, Teek and his family held each other lovingly close as they entered their new cave dwelling to retire for the night.

The next morning, the Council of The Great Valley of Peace was in session; and the first order of the day was naming Councilor Topsy's successor. The job went to a threehorn male who happened to be a few days younger than Cera.

There was an awkward moment as Ducky stood up and blurted out. "Why doesn't Cera get named to stand on the Council! She's the oldest threehorn in the valley! Plus, it was her father's job. She has a right to inherit it, doesn't she?"

"But Cera is female! No female can serve on Council!" Petrie, who was sitting right beside her, got up and told her.

Cera, who was sitting on the other side with Wendyk, was stunned momentarily; but then vehemently told Ducky. "Yeah! I couldn't serve on the Council, even if I wanted the job! Which I don't!"

"Well... You'd get MY vote! You would! You would!" Ducky said.

"HEY!" a male threehorn sitting not far from them yelled. "If you're not gonna keep quiet, LEAVE!"

Ducky look embarrased. "Sorry!"

This brought about a brief fit of laughter here and there from many who were attending. After it died down, the proceedings were allowed to continue.

Later on that day, Cera was called to a dwelling to offer medical aid. A threehorn youngling had come down with a high fever, and would not eat anything, for he had a big tummyache, or so his mother claimed. Cera held her breath, fearing the worst, as she examined the sick youngling. As it turned out, it was not "Bloody Tummy". It was just a mild case of the "sneezies and achies". She just recommended plenty of rest, lots of water, and a healthy dose of the blue flower medicine plant. She told the mother he would feel better in about a couple of days.

The bright circle set on another warm day in The Great Valley of Peace. The future looked very promising indeed for all those who lived in and around it.


End file.
